Pieces of the Truth
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: As Loki's assignment edges towards completion, fate once again starts to do its own job in the lives of these individuals, and the finished work may look a little more beautiful than even Loki had dared to imagine. *Last in the Strength in Numbers trilogy*
1. Chapter 1

**Here we go - the last story in the Strength In Numbers Trilogy! Enjoy!**

* * *

 _November, 1982_

Melinda hated trying to get from class to class in the SHIELD academy. There were too many people going too many places at once, and considering that she was just a lowly freshman in her first week of classes, most everyone ignored her. Given her 5'4" stature, her fellow classmen even had an incredibly aggravating habit of plowing right into her.

"Oh!" she yelped as exactly that happened as she attempted to leave the lecture hall in a swell of students.

The young man who'd run in to her whipped around and she saw the cell phone pressed to his ear as her lecture notes fluttered to the floor all around her. "Excuse me," he apologized absentmindedly, but obviously his phone call was the most important thing to him at the moment, so Melinda waved him on and crouched down to retrieve her notes, not giving the handsome sophomore another thought as she continued to gripe to herself.

* * *

 _January 31, 1998_

Clint Barton didn't have what one might call the greatest luck in the soulmark department. He hadn't even _had_ a soulmark until he was eleven, and even then the words that appeared on the sole of his left foot were strange enough in their own right. Olive green words asked him "Don't you know you'd do best to give an angry agent space?" The next year, a set of sea-foam green words emblazoned themselves on his right foot: "Both of you are ours, then?"

Because the implication that he had a third soulmark coming didn't freak a twelve year old out!

In trying to think positively, he'd decided that at least that meant that he knew to expect a third mark. But there was nothing that could've prepared him for the scarlet-colored words that had bloomed over his heart: "One of us has to die, you know that."

He'd nearly died of a panic attack right then and there!

And now, fourteen years later… now he was an agent for SHIELD, where death was a daily possibility. Or, per today's mission, being the one to take out the threat at orders from Fury. Unfortunately, even the fact that he was freezing cold – this time in Russia – wasn't rare.

Even as the disgruntled thought crawled through his mind, he saw his mark finally approach where he'd been instructed to wait for her. And he saw something that _was_ unusual about this situation. She was only a child! The pretty, petite little redhead he was watching through his scope couldn't be old enough to be in high school, and yet she'd been branded a threat worthy of a SHIELD takedown!

He jerked away from his scope, away from the sight of the innocent looking girl, and took a deep breath, trying to steel himself to do what was necessary. Child or no, Red Room people weren't to be messed with, and he had to do his job. So he swallowed and looked back through his scope… but she had disappeared.

He looked around for her, confident that his rooftop vantage point was a good one – until he felt more than heard someone land behind him on the roof. He whipped around, withdrawing a butterfly knife from where he kept it in his belt only to find a much larger dagger pressed to his carotid artery. _Where does she keep that?!_ He didn't dare ask, though, and a long, tense minute of silence passed instead.

Eventually the girl, the Black Widow, Natalia Romanova, spoke, saying simply, with the eerie calm of a seasoned killer, "One of us has to die, you know that."

Clint froze. _Oh, no!_ If he'd had any reservations before, he knew he wasn't going to kill her now! So he answered quietly, "Then you'd better get on with it… or you could give a chance to me and the right side of the law."

Her eyes blew wide and he knew that he'd just discovered the first of his soulmates. At twenty-seven to her fourteen, he felt like a dirty old man just thinking the word in relation to this kid, but still their age difference might be a good thing. It meant that he could help her, and she was young enough that it would be easier to get her to see things SHIELD's way, the right way.

There were protocols about this sort of thing; if he brought her into SHIELD and admitted that she was his soulmate, then SHIELD would give her a chance to renounce the Red Room, and if she did so, they would forget about putting a target on her back. But she had to be willing to go with him.

He went down on one knee, hoping that he would seem like less of a threat if she could look him in the eye, and before he could speak, she whispered, eyes wide with terror, "I'm supposed to kill you. I'm supposed to kill all my soulmates when I find them."

Clint took a deep breath, her words hitting him like a punch to the stomach, and he said, "But you _don't_ have to, Natalia. I can get you to safety, I promise. You can be a kid, finish school, have a good life where the Red Room won't find you."

She swallowed harshly, looking at him worriedly, no longer an agent of the Red Room but just a scared teenager. "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive."

Clint dared to hold out his hand to her, wordlessly asking her to hand over her weapon. But she did him one better. She dropped the knife onto the ground and placed her trembling hand in his. He smiled at her and stood, guiding her towards the stairwell, not speaking until he was flying one of SHIELD's little two-seater jets back to the base with her in his copilot chair.

Then she asked, barely loud enough to be heard beyond their headphones and over the drone of the jet, "Do you know Bob or Coulson?"


	2. Chapter 2

Clint gave her a strange look. "Yeah, I know a 'Coulson'. He's my handler. But no 'Bob. Why?"

She surveyed him from head to foot one more time before answering, "You'll see some day."

"Words," Clint realized. "You have more soulmarks, don't you?"

"Two more," she muttered. "They're on my feet. I can show you when we land."

"I have two more there too," Clint revealed, liking the spark of excitement that glittered momentarily in her eyes before he added, "But you can't touch them, my feet are too ticklish."

That coaxed a wary smile from the very edges of her mouth and she revealed, "Mine too."

And that was that. Clint had found his first soulmate. They agreed that until she was eighteen, they were just going to be friends, and so they were. But when she was eighteen… well, he let himself start to see her for the attractive young woman that she was, and they were both that much happier for the new development in their relationship.

But they would never admit to what they were. They were each other's best friend, and, yes, when she was eighteen they'd gone to bed together, but then they realized how much more it hurt when the other one was in harms way, and the physical relationship and romantics stopped. The two of them alone weren't as steady as they needed to be to both be a couple and do their job properly, so one thing had to end – and their romantic relationship was the only real choice they had. So they went back to being best friends and nothing more, and they convinced themselves it was enough.

They liked to say that all they needed was each other, and in a way it was true... but in a way, it wasn't. They still had two more soulmates out there somewhere – two more people to steady them and watch their backs – but until they found them, Clint and Natasha – because she wasn't really Natalia anymore – were enough for one another.

* * *

 _February, 2002_

Sometimes Bobbi's life took her to some really ridiculously awful places… but tonight it was just the awful people of the world who were starting to drive her a little nuts. After this morning's very public breakup with her boyfriend of six months, all she wanted was to curl up in a ball and drink the beer she'd snagged when she first walked in the door, underage drinking be d***ed. However, it seemed that every soused somebody in the vicinity of this dorm party felt the need to come over and say "hi" or make a pass at her, depending upon their level of intoxicated. They were annoying her to the point of distraction, even if she did wish to be as out of it as them at the moment. There was no way that was going to happen, though.

And yet... here came another one.

"Hey there, gorgeous," a man a year older than her drunkenly smiled down at her, his open shirt and her position sitting curled in an out-of-the-way corner on the floor giving her a perfect view of his bare chest. And it was a nice view too...

But his greeting still set her teeth on edge. After tonight, if she had a dime for every time she'd heard it… well, she'd put those coins in a bag and lob this guy in the head with it!

 _Or not_ , she mused, giving him a second once-over. He definitely worked out… and she liked the stubble and the accent, and his smile would've been a nice one, she'd bet, if he weren't drunk off his head, and… and maybe having a little bit of fun with him wouldn't have been a bad idea if she wasn't technically here for SHIELD, tailing a suspected bioterrorist's son. Probationary agent and shirking assignments didn't mix well. But still… a little flirting wouldn't hurt; she could do two things at once.

So she smiled, replying with amusement coloring her words, "Hi, random drunk man. You have a name?"

The flabbergasted look on his face was priceless, and he let out a low whistle before he muttered, "Well, that's going to make this awkward."

And suddenly he seemed as sober as a saint. Bobbi cursed herself, her hand slipping to the concealed weapon in the waistband of her jeans. With the smells pervading the room, she hadn't noticed until just now that there was no more alcohol on his breath then there was on her own. "Who are you?"

He winced. "The merc hired to kill the girl who's been stalking the son of a very well-paying but extremely dangerous doctor."

"Then we have a problem," Bobbi replied witheringly, her hand tightening on her gun.

He snorted. "Yeah, we do!"

He brushed his shirt out of the way – to grab a weapon of his own, she thought tensely – but he merely pointed to the sea-foam-colored words over his heart: _Hi, random drunk man. You have a name?_ Reading them, Bobbi swore again.

"So," she suggested. "How about you don't kill me, and I return the favor. That work for you?"

He nodded slowly, muttering, "I don't suppose you have a way to protect me from the people who're gonna have an issue with my not finishing my job?"

"Me personally?" Bobbi eased her hand away from her gun. "No." He looked instantly so worried that she had to lean in and kiss him, and of course she got a _lot_ lost in the kiss, because, wow, _sparks_! But eventually she pulled away and finished her thought. "However, as my soulmate, my employer can and will protect you. Considering your skill set, they may even put you to good use. As long as you cooperate with them, that is."

But the problem with Hunter, Bobbi learned over the next years, was that he didn't cooperate with people very well. He wasn't a team player unless he wanted to be, and for as long as she'd known him, he hadn't wanted to be. Not for SHIELD, and, ultimately, not even in their marriage. So they divorced, went their separate ways, and were left to wonder what might have been.

Would they have made it if they'd had their two other soulmates with them?


	3. Chapter 3

_September 2004_

"Mr. Fitz! Leopold!"

Leo had been so intent on the stereotype he was working on that he didn't hear Agent Weaver knock until she called his name a second time. He gasped, nearly falling out of his chair as he whipped around to face her. "Hello, can I do something for you?"

He didn't notice the girl behind his mentor until Agent Weaver was pushing her forward and saying, "I'd like for you two to get to know another; I think you could be good for one another – friends, even. Leopold, this is Jemma Simmons. Jemma, this is Leopold Fitz." Both teenagers flushed and looked down at their shoes as Agent Weaver smiled encouragingly at them until deciding to try a different tack. "You know what? I'll leave you to it."

It probably wasn't fair of her, she reasoned, to have rushed Jemma down here the moment she realized that the handwriting on Jemma's application was the same as the rose-colored words around Leo's wrist. The boy wore long sleeves and a watch constantly, but he'd fiddled with both enough during his student interview that she'd seen the script. So she left them to discover what she already had.

With their mentor gone, the silence between the two became nearly painful, though Leo did lift his eyes to look at his fellow student. The first thing he noticed was that she was his own age, and he was the youngest person in their class. He'd heard of her before, he realized. Jemma Simmons was two months older than him, a seventeen-year-old biochem major.

She glanced up shyly and caught him staring, blushing prettily even as she admitted awkwardly, sounding even a little discouraged, "I think she thinks it's going to be you and me against the entire school."

Her accent, he noticed vaguely, was beautiful, but it was her actual statement that caught his attention. He gasped, excitement coursing through him before he managed, "Maybe even against the world – forever?"

Then she was gaping right back at him. She squealed, her smile nearly splitting her face in two as she exclaimed, "I'm finally going to have a friend!"

 _A friend._ He felt his own smile slip for a second. Jemma's first thought had been friend at first sight – and he got that, really he did; people like them didn't really attract friends – but as soon as she'd spoken, his had been love at first sight. But if a friend was all that she wanted, then a friend was all that he would be.

He loved her that much.

* * *

 _July, 2011_

"You play beautifully."

Audrey froze where she stood, glancing at the man who'd just touched her shoulder to get her attention.

It was rare for a second chair cellist to be complimented on their playing, let alone with those exact words, so she didn't have to concoct an unusual response very often, and the statement still made butterflies flutter in her stomach. Looking at the sharply dressed man who had to be over a dozen years her senior, she decided that being saucy for once wouldn't kill her. She might scandalize the man, though… _Oh well!_ So she blurted out before she could let her usual reserve take over, "I kiss even better."

That one moment of brassiness convinced Phil that she could handle being a part of his SHIELD-included life and for almost a year they were a couple waiting to find their third.

And then she didn't even have him…

* * *

 _April 1, 2014_

Ever since the agent's resurrection, Heimdall had taken to keeping tabs on Phil Coulson and his new team. In so doing, he'd gained a new appreciation for how twisted the strands of fate could become… without ever _meeting._ It wasn't just that a man had come back to life – which was amazing, yes – but the soulmate meetings on this team, mostly the ones that somehow _hadn't_ happened, were spectacular in and of themselves.

Most recently, there was Skye and Agent Triplett. Though he'd said a set of her words, she had been unconscious at the time and had yet to speak to him. But, as he watched, he was happy to see that one of their friends was of a mind to help rectify the situation.

* * *

Jemma sat down across from Skye in the lounge, a woman on a mission as she asked, "Have you talked to Agent Triplett yet?"

"No," Skye smirked at her. "This is the first time you've let me out of the med lab!"

"You should," Jemma grinned. "As your doctor, I've seen your soulmarks, and… he's already spoken to you while you were unconscious."

Skye asked slowly, "Is there something I should know?"

Jemma smirked. "I'm not going to just _tell_ you! Where's the fun in that?" She stood, shrugging as she walked out the door and called over her shoulder, "I mean, _come on, girl_!"

At the yellow words that were wrapped around her right ankle, Skye fairly flew out of her chair and to the doorway, intending to chase Jemma down if necessary. Instead, she ran into a solid chest.

"Hey now!"

Equally strong arms wrapped around her to keep her from falling and Skye looked up into the dark eyes of the newest member of Coulson's team.

 _Say something_ , her brain screamed at her. "Hey," she stammered. But she had to do better than that! "Jemma told me what you said to me."

Trip's eyes widened and his arms around her tightened before he looked her over appreciatively and remarked, "I guess I said the right thing, then, huh?"

Skye giggled and kissed him.

When at length they pulled away, he said, "I knew befriending Dr. Simmons would pay off."

Skye rolled her eyes before the same brown orbs suddenly brightened and she asked hopefully, "Do you have two more soulmates?"

Trip nodded. "I take it you do too."

"Yeah. Do you know either of them?"

"No," Trip frowned. "And I don't have any clues as to who they are, either."

"I think I know one of their names," Skye revealed, pulling down her left sock to show him the blue-gray words around her ankle.

Trip said "he's here – because it's definitely a man's writing" as he tapped his heart.

"That's where my third mark is too," Skye grinned, grabbing his hand to pull him towards her bunk as she gestured to her left breast and asked, "Wanna see?"


	4. Chapter 4

_June 8, 2014_

Jemma was genuinely glad that Skye and Trip had found one another, but it made the awkwardness between her and Fitz hurt all the more. Trip and Skye had two more soulmates out there somewhere as well as each other while Jemma couldn't even get things back to a good place with the one soulmate she had.

For reasons she'd never understood, her relationship with Fitz had never given her that sense of calm completion she'd always heard of and expected, so she had friend-zoned him from day one. Now she was beginning to believe that it would take a miracle-worker to get Fitz to even be her friend again!

* * *

Meanwhile in Avengers Tower, on Thor's level, JARVIS was debriefing Loki in preparation for the trip the god had been ordered to take to the Playground as a part of his ongoing punishment from the All-Father.

On Steve's level, the captain and his seven soulmates – most of whom he and Bucky had just met – were enjoying the fruits of Loki's labor. After Anna's asthma scare, none of them had wanted to separate from one another, so they were all sprawled across the living room floor, holding hands with heads and feet in laps as they talked about anything and everything, finally getting to know one another and have a complete soulbond.

Daniel paused in the middle of telling a story about Jack, gesturing to the way Bucky was holding Anna's hand as he asked suspiciously, "Are you…?"

"Checking her pulse?" Steve supplied from where he was leaning against the couch with Angie's head on his shoulder. "Yeah, he is." He gave Bucky a look that relayed both adoration and exasperation as he said, "Buck's a real mother hen."

"Only because you always seem to need one!" Bucky objected.

"Well, I don't," Anna said softly, gently extracting her hand from Bucky's and running her fingers through his hair instead. "I'm perfectly fine now."

"Definitely better than the last time I saw you," an unexpected voice croaked.

The eight had been so absorbed in their conversation and one another that they hadn't heard the elevator open and someone step out. Now that this person stood in the living room doorway, though, there was a mad scramble of movement from five people to arrange themselves so that they were next to their spouses. Steve, Bucky, and Peggy, in contrast, froze where they sat, which somehow made them look all the more guilty.

Tony shuffled into the room, eyes that of a wounded little boy, hurt and startled and cast to the floor as he muttered, "So I was right? About all eight of you being soulmates?" He shrugged. "I mean, I assume five of you are only alive because of Loki, and he wouldn't bother resurrecting you unless you were soulmates to one of the Avengers."

Edwin spoke first, offering a careful "Tony…" but even that was cut off by an increasingly angry billionaire.

"Don't 'Tony' me," the genius demanded, but he still didn't look at anyone for a long moment.

Then he froze as suddenly as he had made his presence known and his chest heaved with a sharp breath as it really hit him who was in the room, who was back. Jarvis, Anna, all the people who had raised him and left him too early – they were back, they were here!

And they were _Steve's soulmates_! They were _each other's_ soulmates! He thought back, remembering their mid-length sleeves and socked feet even at the most casual of times. Their soulbonds were something that they had worked very hard to hide from him. They'd told him enough lies to make his head spin, and then he only verified the truth because of something _Loki_ did?

"No," he objected aloud.

Peggy said one word - Tony really wasn't even sure what it was - and he whipped around towards her so quickly he startled himself. She had spent more time lying to him than anyone and her placating tone made him livid. For a second he saw red.

"You know what really gets me?" he snapped, interrupting her. "I find this out because of _Loki_! You know what he did, yet he's the only one who's been honest about this! The _god_ of lies is forcing people to be honest while you've lied to me at a direct question about this! Why wouldn't you tell me the truth?! I asked you as recently as last year!"

Peggy Carter's eyes were filled with hurt and sincerity as she answered, "I'm sorry we hurt you - that _I_ hurt you - but we were only ever trying to protect everyone involved. Some of us were fairly high-profile people; surely you of all people can understand choosing to hide a multi-person soulbond in that situation."

He was still angry, but he saw that she had a point - and he _did_ understand that point better than most. After all, even now, very few people knew that Bruce was his and Pepper's third, or that they even _had_ a third.

So he lost a lot of his bite as he muttered, "Sorry if I'm bitter about a lie I grew up hearing from the people who raised me."

In that moment, it was completely stupid how badly he wished his father had just been around to raise him himself. Yes, Howard had been a far from perfect father, but Tony firmly believed - as he always had - that he could've been better if he hadn't been so obsessed with finding Steve and Bucky.

His eyes roamed over the eight faces, still not quite believing what he was seeing. When he realized that he had made Anna cry, he deflated entirely, no longer angry, but still flabbergasted by what he had learned.

Jarvis saw it all, wrapping an arm around Anna's shoulders as he assured Tony, "Nobody's a perfect parent, but we _are_ happy to have been such a big part of your life."

"And I'm glad I had you," Tony replied, hands shoved deep in his pockets as he rolled his eyes towards the ceiling to avoid glaring tellingly at Steve as he muttered, "I just wish that Dad..."

That he'd what? Been around for his son? Not been so obsessed with his search? With his work?


	5. Chapter 5

"I know," Daniel spoke up. "We didn't want Howard to be so focused either; we didn't ask for it, but that's just how he was."

Tony sighed at the reminder of the fact that he had long resigned himself to before he offered helpfully, watching Anna hopefully, "At least that got me you guys."

"It did," Jarvis agreed.

"So why do you dislike Steve?" Jack asked suddenly.

"I don't," Tony objected instinctively, but then he got a good look at Jack.

He saw the cool, know-it-all, sharp eyes, the overly-relaxed posture, and the crossed arms. He saw the man who'd caught him in more schemes than he cared to admit, and, more than that, he saw a master interrogator.

Okay, apparently they were going to talk about this now too.

"I don't dislike Steve," Tony repeated slowly, looking at only Jack because that was easier as he rocked back on his heels. "I resent that the idea of finding him took so much of Dad's time away from his family."

"But that gave you us – and gave you to us, really," Angie repeated Tony's own sentiment, and he nodded, "We took care of each other, didn't we?"

"You guys took care of me," Tony corrected.

Then he caught Peggy staring at him as she said, regret heavy in her tone, "Sometimes anyway."

He knew she was still thinking about the way he'd snapped at her, and he regretted it even as he assured her, "You took good care of me, Aunt Peg."

"No. I didn't," she answered firmly. "You're right. I was here; I should've done something to help you all those years ago."

"Way back then?" Tony asked. "You mean in the 90s?" When she nodded, he shook his head. "No. You and I did the same thing – threw ourselves into our own work and grew apart when we should've sought each other out. Neither one of us is the type to do that when _we're_ the ones hurting, and that's the fault of us _both_. Please don't beat yourself up over any of this; we've both done each other wrong over the years." He took a second to contemplate the word "sorry," but it was such a hard thing to say that he settled instead for the half-truth of, "I didn't mean to yell." Then he dropped down onto one knee in front of her and took her hand like he might've back in the nursing home, adding, "And I'm not angry – not really – just," he faltered, looking at the eight as he searched for the right term. He decided on "stunned."

"I get the feeling that's going to be the general response," Jack remarked.

Tony ignored him for a moment, squeezing Peggy's hands as he asked, "So, are you and I okay?"

Peggy raised her eyebrows the slightest bit, shooting back, "Are you and Steve okay?"

Tony made a face as he glanced at Steve and asked honestly, "Have we ever been 'okay'?"

"I think we're friendly," Steve said cautiously. "We've been living together – in the same building, that is – for years, anyway, and we've never tried to kill one another."

"That's comforting," Peggy drawled.

Steve smiled at her, promising, "Tony and I are fine, Peg."

Tony squeezed her hands again, repeating, "So, are we fine, Aunt Peg?"

She grinned at him, leaning forward to kiss his forehead like she had when he was a young child. "Yes, we are… on one condition."

The look in her eyes made Tony a little nervous. They all knew that she could be as mischievous as him at times, and there was one thing that he'd been denying her for years. Now she'd effortlessly backed him into a corner, and he could guess exactly what she was going to ask for.

"I've never met your third, and the others haven't met either of your soulmates. I think it's past time, Tony."

"But-" he stammered nervously, looking to Steve for help.

He had no idea how these people – some of the most respected figures in his life – were going to react to his and Pepper's third being a man, and that was one reason why Bruce had never met his Aunt Peg. And he was beginning to suspect that she knew that reason, too, not that it helped him any.

Steve wasn't being any help, either; he just raised admonishing eyes to Tony and asked, "You mean they've never met?"

"No!" he said too loudly, quickly tacking on, "We've been too busy."

"I've heard that a lot," Peggy murmured quietly, but the words weren't meant to cut.

The assessing way that she was watching him freaked him out anyway.

"I'd like to meet them, Tony," the softest person in the room said, her voice music to his ears even as her words made him flinch.

He was, hands down, a Mama's boy, and Anna… well, she was the closest thing he'd ever had to a real mother. He couldn't refuse her anything. But, oh, how he hoped they wouldn't hate Bruce! Tony didn't know what he would do if they took to disliking the best friend he could ever have.

 _Surely they wouldn't be if Bucky and Steve are so open about their friendship_ , he reasoned, taking a deep breath as he called out, "JARVIS, where are Pepper and Dr. Banner now?"

"Miss Potts is just returning home from a meeting, and Dr. Banner is in the labs."

 _God bless JARVIS for not saying "his labs,"_ Tony realized suddenly. That was not the way that he wanted them to find this out.

"Tell them that I need them in Steve's living room, wouldya."

Then he thought of something else, and double-checked, "It's not a big deal to you guys that I have two soulmates, right?" Raised eyebrows, chuckles, and snorts met his question and a smile tugged at the edge of his mouth. "Good."

"One of your soulmates is a doctor?" Angie asked. "Why am I not surprised?"

Tony chuckled, and only when Steve pointed out, "You can sit down, you know," did he realize that he was still kneeling at Peggy's feet. So he shifted to sit on the couch across from where the others were clustered and replied, "You can get comfortable too if you want; don't change things around on my account."


	6. Chapter 6

Steve got a sudden look in his eye – the look of a "man with a plan" – and pulled Bucky to him, the two of them scooting this way and that on the floor until they were a tangled – and entirely _close_ – pile of limbs. All the while Steve's eyes were assessing his soulmates… checking what they thought of... two men being as touch-oriented as Tony and Bruce could be. Tony's grin nearly widened a little too much. He and Steve bickered like nobody else in the Tower – as long as Clint and Natasha were having a good day – but they had each other's backs.

He was not, however, prepared for the way that Bucky reached for Anna, let alone for Peggy curling into Jarvis.

"J, I need Pepper, now!" he muttered under his breath, hoping that the eight couldn't hear him.

Super-soldier serum knew no bounds, though, and Bucky jerked away from Anna too quickly, sensing Tony's discomfort and looking terrified by the idea that he might've done something wrong.

"Buck, you're alright," Steve said, running a hand down the other man's arm even as he shot Tony a reproving glance.

"You're safe here," Anna promised, completely oblivious as to why Bucky had pulled away. "Nobody's gonna hurt you."

"You sure about that?" Bucky asked, shooting Tony a glance.

The genius drew an "X" across his chest. "Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in HYDRA's eye. You can relax here and do whatever you want."

Tony hoped he got the message behind the words that he only half meant, and he was pretty sure that Bucky had, but he still chose to only curl even closer to Steve, leaving Anna alone where she was.

But before Tony could even think to try to rectify that situation the elevator doors were sliding open to reveal Bruce and Pepper… kissing each other like the world was about to end.

Tony paled and Steve – well, he wasn't being helpful anymore – burst out laughing.

"That's one way to tell them who your third is!" Cap gasped between laughs.

Realizing that they'd been caught, Bruce and Pepper jerked apart, not looking the least bit guilty until they saw the "visitors" gathered in the room.

"Sorry," Pepper apologized first as they walked out of the elevator. "I was down in the labs, telling him 'hi' after I got back from the meeting when JARVIS paged us and…"

"It's the suit's fault," Bruce told Tony imploringly, gesturing to the _very_ figure-flattering gray and purple number that Pepper was wearing.

Yeah, Tony definitely saw the appeal, but, lord, could they have picked worse timing?

"Geez, you two," he muttered instead, not quite ready to look at the other eight in the room just yet.

Until Angie asked, "So, what's the problem supposed to be here, Tony?"

His head snapped around to look at her uncertainly, then at Pepper and Bruce, standing hand in hand in front of the now-closed elevator. Did she not understand? He didn't really know how to say what he needed to so that no questions remained as to what he, Pepper, and Bruce were together… but he had to do something, and in the end it was Pepper who inadvertently came up with the solution.

Without even knowing what was going on, just that he looked so troubled, she gestured him forward, and he was pulled into a three-way hug with his two soulmates. When they released him, he took a deep breath as Pepper kissed both of them on the cheek, and then the trio turned around to face the eight, Pepper holding his left hand and Bruce his right.

"Is that all?" Angie asked dismissively. Tony finally started to smile as she admonished, "There's no need to make such a big fuss; you Starks are always so dramatic!"

" _They're_ dramatic?!" Daniel protested, eyeing his wife incredulously.

Jack chimed in with "says the actress!" and that was it – Tony laughed aloud. He'd been so worried over what they saw as absolutely nothing, and he loved them for it.

Then Edwin called out before the conversation could truly get underway, "What are your names?"

The group quieted again as Pepper asked, "Pardon?"

"Your names?" Jarvis repeated, now that he could be heard clearly again.

"I'm Pepper Potts," Pepper replied, taking a step towards CEO business-lady as she held out her hand for Jarvis to shake. She cocked her head to the side, studying Jarvis for a second before she asked, "Have we met somewhere before? It seems like I should recognize you."

She should – from so many photos of Tony's long-gone childhood that it wasn't even funny.

The smile Jarvis was wearing got a nervous tick around the edges as he answered, "I'm Edwin Jarvis."

Pepper froze. " _The_ Edwin Jarvis? The very _dead_ Edwin Jarvis?"

"Loki," Bruce said with a sigh.

It wasn't even a question anymore. When strange things occurred in the Tower, it was assumed to be Loki's fault and he was thought to be guilty until proven innocent. Tony had blamed countless things on the god while Loki was in Asgard, not even on Earth… and everyone had believed him too.

"Are _all_ of you supposed to be dead?" Pepper asked carefully, but Tony and Bruce both stepped towards her when they heard the edge of hysteria just under the surface in her tone.

"Only five of them," Tony answered for Jarvis, who had been quick to release Pepper's hand and take a rapid step back, obviously sensing that something was amiss.

She laughed, and the hysterical edge was definitely there, closer than ever to becoming a full-on rant and a declaration that she needed to take a week by herself in the Malibu house.

Bruce grabbed her shoulders and caught her eye, asking calmly, "Is this worse than having the other guy for a soulmate?"

Pepper took a deep breath – and then glared at Tony over her shoulder, because, yeah, that ultimatum had originally come from him. But it almost always worked, so it didn't bother Tony… very much.

"'The other guy'?" Jarvis repeated curiously. "Do you three have a fourth?"


	7. Chapter 7

Bruce winced. "Sort of." He paused for a second, trying to find a way to explain "the Hulk" before he eventually said, "JARVIS, pull up a holographic feed of some of the Hulk's most recent video footage; I'm pretty sure there's no other way to explain this in a way where nobody passes out."

Tony's eyes snapped nervously to Angie and Anna. Peggy had at least seen the Hulk on TV before; Angie and Anna were being thrown into this cold turkey. But they wouldn't pass out or something, would they?

Pepper was apparently thinking along the same lines because she took a deep breath to calm herself and then held up a hand, ordering, "Hold on a second, JARVIS." She turned to Jarvis and prolonged the inevitable by saying, "We didn't get the rest of your names. We know Bucky," her eyes widened as she caught sight of another familiar face from Tony's boyhood photos, then another, and another. "And Peggy Carter, Jack Thompson, Daniel and Angie Sousa, and Anna Jarvis."

Then Bruce asked the all-important question: "Don't take this the wrong way, but… why would Loki concern himself with resurrecting you guys?"

Steve froze, chuckled nervously. Bucky studied Pepper and Bruce from behind locks of dark hair. Pepper realized first.

"No _way_!" She whipped towards Steve, demanding in shock, "You have _seven_ soulmates, and you never even breathed a word about it to any of us?!"

"In all fairness, other people here knew."

Steve looked pointedly over Pepper's shoulder towards Tony, who was quick to defend himself with, "I did _not_ know for sure, Cap, and those aren't rumors that even I would go around spreading. I keep quite a bit more to myself then you think that I do."

"Speaking of things that we can't keep to ourselves…" Bruce nodded pointedly towards the hologram that JARVIS had brought up, hovering and paused motionless in the middle of the room.

"Wait," Angie demanded. "What's your first name, beyond Dr. Banner?"

"Bruce," the man in question answered with a small smile as he sat down on a couch in between Pepper and Tony. "My name is Bruce – and this is the other guy. JARVIS, play the feed."

Instantly the Hulk's raging roar filled the room from speakers and Bruce curled into himself just a little, but it was enough that his soulmates noticed. Tony pulled him close and Pepper laid her head on his shoulder over Tony's hand, while she played with his fingers to keep the doctor from clenching them in his lap.

Across the room, Anna was indeed tensing as she began to understand… but Steve and Peggy were nearly mirroring Tony and Pepper's actions to calm her. All eight of them were sprawled across the floor again – the one place that had enough space to contain them all at once – and no one was sitting without touching someone else. Angie was sitting nearly in Jack's lap while she held Jarvis' hand, Daniel had an arm resting ever so carefully around Bucky's shoulders, and Anna was still cradled between Steve and Peggy.

Even with two of their soulmates having just been introduced to the group, it was so _glaringly_ obvious that they loved one another.

 _How_ , Tony suddenly wondered, _did I not see that until now?_

But eventually the feed was over and as the hologram flickered into nothingness, Bruce slowly relaxed, as did everyone else.

After a beat of silence, Jack asked Bruce, "That was you?"

"Another version of me, yes," Bruce agreed. "How I got that way is a long story riddled with bad mistakes and worse fathers, but relevant knowledge would be that it's connected to my heartbeat. So long as it's not over 200 bpm, then everything is fine; only if it goes above that does the other guy come out, but I've learned ways to control my breathing, so it… it's not an uncontrollable problem."

"And he's not dangerous," Tony added quickly.

Steve was feeling helpful again because he seconded, "No, he's not."

Jack nodded slowly and looked back at the place where the hologram had been before he said, "Okay. I trust you both to be able to make those calls, and if you say he's not dangerous, then he's not." He stood to his feet and offered a hand first to Bruce and then to Pepper. "Welcome to the family, guys."

"Yeah," Tony breathed a sigh of relief, squeezing Bruce's shoulder and Pepper's hand as he said, as much to himself as to anyone else, "This is us; this is my family."

"And this," Jack folded himself back down onto the floor, this time by Peggy and Anna so that he could take the hand of each while his words encompassed even more people than that. "This is mine."

* * *

It was hours later and dark outside by the time Tony, Pepper, and Bruce got ready to leave to head back to their own level of the Tower.

"Are you sure that you guys don't want to be split up into at least two levels?" Tony asked.

"We've been separated more than long enough," Peggy said firmly, giving him a kiss on the forehead in parting.

Then Anna and Angie did the same thing, and Edwin, Daniel, and Jack hugged him. The men shook Bruce's and Pepper's hands, but the three women didn't care – if Bruce and Pepper were a part of Tony's family, that made them their kids, so they got kisses on the forehead just like Tony.

Throughout these fond gestures, Steve stayed to the side, and Bucky outright stayed on the other side of the room.

Then Pepper arched a teasing eyebrow at Steve – seeing Tony in what had ultimately become such a good mood had put her in an unusually jovial mood as well – and slid over to him, asking, "What, Captain, nothing for your new adoptees?"

Steve managed not to snort. "Tony is not my child. My redheaded stepchild, maybe, but not my child."

Pepper frowned. "If Tony's supposed to be the child, doesn't that make _me_ the redheaded stepchild?"

"No, you're a lady who deserves a reward for being the brave lady who puts up with him."

Pepper laughed. "Well, thank you."

Then she gave him a teasing kiss on the cheek – Tony's mischief might finally be starting to rub off on her – and darted into the elevator before it closed without her. Steve blushed.


	8. Chapter 8

Steve didn't blush often – he'd been in the army, and if that didn't scare the blush from your cheeks then nothing would – but, of course, when he did, Bucky caught him instantly. Ridiculous sniper eyes.

Where a second ago the shaggy-haired man had been on the other side of the room, he was suddenly at Steve's shoulder, declaring, "Our girls are going to have to get you _way_ more experienced than that, Stevie."

"You know I'm not as bad as that!"

"Well, I thought you weren't!" Bucky teased, in this moment the same guy who'd goaded him into getting Peggy into bed back in their army days. "You must be outta practice, but you can fix that; we've got us some pretty good-looking dames to explore…" Bucky mused in fun, looking over Steve's shoulder at women among their six soulmates still congregated by the elevator. "I sure intend to – but then I don't know that I would've ever blushed around a woman from a simple peck on the cheek!"

"And how would that work?" Steve thought aloud. "The numbers are uneven – three women to five men."

"So what?"

"So I get the feeling they're not used to two guys sharing the same bed in any capacity whatsoever."

"I talked you into it, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but they've already lived an entire lifetime without it, Buck."

"But they didn't have me in that lifetime, now did they?" he raised an eyebrow and Steve just shook his head in amusement.

It figured that the first thing to truly return of the old Bucky would be his prowess and his ability to talk people into things. He'd talked Steve into and out of two and a half decades worth of misadventures, after all.

"You think maybe you're a little full of yourself, jerk?" Steve asked with an adoring smile that let Bucky know he didn't really mean it.

"Face it, Steve, I just know where I shine best."

"On your arm?" Steve shot back, hoping a second too late that Bucky would be okay with the joke.

"With the ladies!"

Peggy must've heard at least some of their conversation as she came over to them because she arched an eyebrow at Bucky, declaring only, "'Ma'am.'"

"If you had been _looking at me_ while I said it, instead of at tall, blonde, and blue-eyes over here, that word would've taken on an entirely different meaning!" Bucky protested instantly.

Steve almost laughed with the joy of it. This felt like having Bucky back, and he loved it. Heck, he just loved his best friend, period!

"What are we talking about over here?" Jack asked, coming up to slide his arms around Peggy's waist with a curious smile.

"Sleeping arrangements," Bucky answered before Steve or Peggy could.

Great, that meant that he had something up his sleeve – a plan of some sort that might or might not go over well.

"Oh. Are we sure that there's enough bedrooms on this level for all eight of us?" Jack inquired.

Steve replied easily, "Yeah, sure. This mansion was Tony's pet project when it was made. It's ridiculously huge."

"I was talking more about who sleeps with who tonight anyway," Bucky informed Jack, casual as you please.

A corner of Jack's mouth tilted up as he asked Bucky conspiratorially, "Anna?"

Bucky took a deep breath, sighed, and a red flag shot up in Steve's mind as the had-been HYDRA asset muttered, "I want to stick with Steve – or, better yet, by myself – because I have nightmares still, pretty bad. But I just thought that it was a conversation that we might want to have as a group to establish what each of us are okay with."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, looking too innocent to actually _be_ innocent as to what Bucky meant.

"I mean are any of us willing to sleep, a guy beside a guy and a girl beside a girl. Steve mentioned that the ratio of guys to girls is uneven now, so I thought we should decide what to do with that."

Jack stiffened ever so slightly behind Peggy, and the woman let out a wordless sigh before admitting, "That's actually an old topic for discussion, particularly between myself, Daniel, and Jack."

"Why them?" Bucky asked, his eyebrows drawing together.

"Because we remind her of people, therefore we must be those people," Jack answered, a little tersely, before Peggy could.

"No." Peggy turned in her husband's arms to meet his gaze. "I never once even implied that I wanted you and Danny to be Steve and Bucky-"

"Not verbally."

"And not at all since we moved into Howard's apartments! Dealing with you and Daniel, probably even making those comparisons, became a part of my grieving process. You've known that for years, you've come understand it; don't you dare try and throw it in my face like that now!"

Daniel rushed over to the corner where they were, physically standing between Jack and Peggy and putting a hand on a shoulder of each of them as he interrupted, "Hey, guys! Escalate much?"

Jack shot him a withering glare, demanding, "Go away."

"Nope," Daniel answered evenly before looking at Steve and Bucky for an explanation. "What's going on? What started this?"

I think that in a group like ours – large and with an unequal number of men and women – we need to have a discussion about who's willing to share a bed with who and I said so. I don't know why they…" Bucky looked between Jack and Peggy. "Started arguing."

Daniel nodded, a tired look passing through his dark eyes as he answered, "Because it's an old argument between them; Peggy started in on the two of us back in the forties when it was just the three of us – or when Jack and I knew only her, anyway – and he's… very much against it."

"What about you?" Bucky asked, looking Daniel over.

Daniel sighed. "I don't care; I don't think it's that big of a deal. I'm just sick of them fighting over it. This is only our first day back together and already they're starting up? No, please, no."


	9. Chapter 9

"Peg and I don't have a bad marriage, Susan," Jack objected.

"No, I know that you don't. You just have sour spots that you would do better to stay away from, just like any couple."

"Could that be a side effect of not having had a completed soulbond?" Peggy asked. "Because something as basic in a relationship as sleeping arrangements isn't something that we should have to shuffle to the side and not discuss."

Jack took a deep breath, reminding them with forced calm, "I have no problem whatsoever with sleeping with with you, and Angie, and Anna, thanks! That's what we've _all_ always done, not just me; guys with gals and vice versa."

"Ah," Bucky rocked back on his heels. "I see what the problem is."

"I don't have a _problem_ ," Jack ground out, his glare dark.

Bucky took a step away from him and Steve instantly reached for his hand. A beat passed. Jack had the good graces to look apologetic, and he visibly calmed himself down. Bucky took a deep breath and dove back into the conversation.

"You don't have a problem, Jack," Bucky said evenly. "You have presuppositions about what is and isn't acceptable. But even that seems to change depending on the case."

"What do you mean?"

"Me and Steve, Tony and Bruce – you're okay with us being as close as we are, but you're not comfortable doing something like that for yourself."

"I can do what I want, and everybody else can do what they want. What's the problem with that?"

"There _is_ no problem with that." Bucky paused for a moment, thinking something over before he requested, "Let me do some research and get back to you, okay?"

"We'll see," Jack replied evenly.

If the blond had his way, this conversation would never be gotten back to. Bucky, however, didn't plan on letting him have his way.

"So, back to the original question:" Steve said. "What are we doing tonight?"

"It's late;" Daniel said. "Why don't we just do married couples and come back to this after a good night's sleep... or not sleeping, whatever floats your boat?"

"No," Peggy spoke up suddenly. "I want to stay with Bucky tonight."

Bucky tensed. "I don't want to hurt you if I have a nightmare, doll."

"You stayed with me last night."

"With Steve, who could've and would've protected you if something had gone wrong."

"I can help myself, Bucky; I know how to deal with PTSD."

"Is that so?" Bucky asked, rolling his eyes behind the curtain of his hair.

Jack answered meaningfully, "Yeah, it is."

Bucky did a double take of the blond man, realizing what he was implying, before he muttered begrudgingly, "Alright, whatever the lady wants."

Peggy grinned and reached for his hand. Bucky accepted the gesture, but dragged Steve along with them as they went over to where Anna, Eddie, and Angie were settled on a couch, talking.

"We're going to bed," Peggy announced, holding up her and Bucky's joined hands.

Anna pouted at Bucky, complaining, "No fair."

"Trust me, sweetheart, it's better this way," Bucky informed her, bending down to kiss the top of her head.

Eddie, who had been sitting between Angie and Anna, curled out of the way, having a touch-me-not moment, so that Bucky could do the same thing to Angie.

Bucky looked at Peggy in surprise, asking, "Are they all like this?"

"Let's just say that we have our work cut out for us to make this work for all of us as a group," Peggy replied.

"Don't worry, once I get started on a mission, I always finish it." He glanced at Steve with a grimace, tacking on, "Most of the time."

"Come here, jerk," Steve demanded gently, pulling Bucky to him for a long minute before he released him. "I love you."

"I love you too, punk," Bucky replied with a small smile.

Daniel surprised Bucky when he sidled up to him and put an arm around his shoulders, saying firmly, "We do all love you, even when we're temperamental… and I don't want you to worry so much about hurting us, either. Peggy meant it; too many of us were soldiers, and you'd probably be stunned if you knew who'd been hurt how. All of know what PTSD looks like, and how to handle it. We're not afraid of you, you're not allowed to be afraid of you. Okay?"

Bucky smiled, not sure how to tell the man how much that meant to him, and ended up pulling him in for a fierce hug. Daniel rested his head on Bucky's shoulder, just prolonging the moment of loving human contact before sending him off with Peggy, murmuring, "Good night."

"Good night, Danny," Bucky replied with a soft smile.

When he and Peggy were gone down the hallway, Daniel turned back to the remaining five and asked, looking between Steve and Angie, "How about I just go with Steve tonight? Would that cause less drama?"

"Sounds good to me," Steve agreed.

Angie grinned. "I'm fine with that if you boys are. Jack looks like he needs somebody to make him smile anyway."

Jack grumbled, but Angie sprang up from the couch and dragged him down the hallway before he could complain further. Anna and Eddie trailed behind them to a room of their own.

Steve waited until he was alone with Daniel in the living room before he asked in a low voice, "Are you okay?"

"Are you?"

Steve remained silent for a moment before muttering, "If Jack ever scares him like that again, I'll knock his teeth out."

"Jack tends to inspire that sort of reaction in people," Daniel remarked. "But he's not that bad, really. He has redeeming qualities, anyway."

"As does Bucky, but that doesn't mean that I've never wanted to strangle him. I call him a jerk for a reason."

Daniel grinned. "Yeah, but I get the feeling that he's _your_ jerk."

"He is," Steve smiled. "Anyway, my bedroom's down the hall this way."


	10. Chapter 10

The two of them were in Steve's room before Daniel continued their conversation by remarking, "Almost like me and Jack. Maybe Peg was right in a way."

"What do you mean? Jack made it pretty clear that you two weren't romantic."

"No," Daniel looked down at his shoes as he toed them off. "We're not, but he's my Jackie and I'm his Susan, and nobody else gets away with using those nicknames."

"Where did those names get started?" Steve asked with a grin, closing the bedroom door before he peeled off his T-shirt.

Daniel sat down on the end of Steve's bed and pulled his right sock off, holding up his ankle for Steve's inspection. The super-soldier peered at the dark green words in the semi-darkness, making out the words "You sure you can keep up, Agent Susan?"

"I still had my crutch then, in the days before my metal leg, and he was not happy about being partnered with the agency's cripple."

"And where are you two at now?" Steve asked, retrieving two pairs of basketball shorts from his dresser before he sat down on the bed beside Daniel.

"He's my best friend, but we are platonic," Daniel answered, removing his second sock. "None of us ever did anything worse than having sex with an opposite-sex spouse that wasn't our own. We're not inclined towards same-sex relations, anyway." He scoffed quietly. We've never even just slept in a bed with someone of the same sex."

"So you've never done something like," Steve gestured between the two of them. "This?"

Daniel froze for a beat before he shook his head.

Steve gave him a small reprieve, handing him the extra pair of shorts and saying, "Try these on if you want to; I'm going to go brush my teeth in the bathroom that's attached to this room. I have an extra toothbrush for you too, if you want it."

"Thanks," Daniel muttered, and Steve left him to his tasks and thoughts.

The other man was overly jittery, moving quicker than Steve, and by the time the super-soldier was ready to leave the bathroom, Daniel was already there, shirtless on the bed, having already turned off the lights… and still skittish with nerves but trying not to be. He still hadn't answered Steve's question.

Steve crawled under the covers on his side of the bed, both of them still sitting up in the moonlit room as he laid his hand on the other man's wrist and asked Daniel, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Daniel answered quickly, too quickly, as he took a deep breath.

So he _was_ nervous, even though he'd claimed to think it was no big deal, Steve mused.

Searching his eyes, Steve asked, "What are you thinking?"

"Nothing; I'm fine."

"What you are," Steve smiled gently. "Is a very bad liar."

Daniel flushed, embarrassed at being caught, and opened his mouth, closed it, and tried again. "We're soulmates, so there's a connection, but I…" he sighed. "I don't really know you as a person beyond being 'Captain America' and I always thought that if I was going to share a room with a man, it would be with… someone else, at least the first time, anyway."

"You're just more comfortable with Jack, aren't you?"

"I'm comfortable with all of my soulmates."

Steve gave him a "come on now" eye roll at the copout. Daniel put his head in his hands and groaned, the only admission that Steve needed.

"I don't even know why?!" Daniel said from behind his hands. "He really is such a... well, a jerk! And I… With Angie I even had this 'love at first sight' experience, and I know that she is and always will be the soulmate to whom I'm closest but..."

"But there's still something about Jack," Steve nodded understandingly.

"And even Eddie sometimes, but that just feels more like the familiarity of an old friend sometimes, and it can be hard enough to get him to just give somebody a hug. Bucky's definitely…"

Daniel trailed off and Steve nodded with a laugh; he needed no explanation. "Yeah, Bucky."

"And you," Daniel looked out at Steve from behind his hands. "You look a little like Jack."

"But I'm not Jack," Steve replied, bringing them back full-circle.

Daniel sighed. "But you're not Jack."

"Don't worry," Steve put a hand on the other man's back. "Bucky'll figure something out for you two; he's good at convincing people to do things."

Daniel smiled at Steve. "Is _that_ your story?"

"And I'm sticking to it!" Steve nodded firmly with a smile of his own.

Daniel chuckled, but it turned into a gaping yawn.

"We should lay down; it's been a huge day," Steve said, taking his own advice as he spoke.

He would let Daniel decide what to do with himself, so he wasn't really expecting what he got. He'd turned his back to Daniel to give the other man the space that he presumed he would want, but when Daniel laid down he put his head against Steve's back. _In an attempt to actually… snuggle?_ But both men soon realized that wasn't going to work.

"You can turn over if you want," Daniel offered quietly, obviously knowing full well what Steve was attempting to do.

So Steve obliged, and Daniel turned on his side so that they were facing the same direction. They weren't looking at one another, but Daniel scooted so that his back was molded to Steve's front and Steve draped an arm carefully over his chest, and it was nice.

"Do you mind being the little spoon?" Steve asked, remembering the way that Bucky had groused the first time they'd lain like this after the serum.

"Actually," Daniel considered. "I think I like it. And, you know what, you may not be good ole Jack, but I gotta say, Steve is kinda nice himself."

"Thanks, Danny," Steve smiled, not quite brave enough to add a sarcastic "I love you, too," just yet. "Good night."

Daniel burrowed in for the night, closing his eyes as he muttered, "Good night, Steve."


	11. Chapter 11

"Are you thinking about something you'd care to share?" Bucky asked as Peggy shut the bedroom door behind them. "Because you've still got something on your mind."

Peggy turned to face him, saying, "There are things that Jack, Daniel, and Eddie don't necessarily know."

"Such as?" Bucky asked with upraised eyebrows.

"He said, and he is under the impression that, the three men have only slept in the same bed as the three women and vice versa."

"Is that not true?"

Peggy kicked off her shoes as she admitted, "There was a time when I knew Daniel and Jack, but we weren't admitting – to the public or ourselves – that we were soulmates. I met Angie during that time, and..." she blew out a deep breath. "A whole mess ensued. At some point at the beginning of that, I got kicked out of my apartment and moved into Angie's apartment building. There was only one bed in that apartment, and she and I had no problem sharing it. Then, later, when I got promoted to director of SHIELD, as a group, Eddie, Jack, Danny, and I started taking frequent visits out of town. It was confided in me that Angie and Anna slept in the same bed during those times when they had the house to themselves, and there were a couple of times that Anna and I did the same – or all three of us women, for that matter – whenever the boys would be away overnight for one reason or another."

Bucky laughed, teasing, "Really? Good, sweet, little Anna bucked tradition like that?"

"Our 'little Anna' has a whole other side to her!" Peggy joked right back.

"Okay… So it's really just the three men who are gun-shy about sleeping in their beds with another guy?" he summarized in all seriousness.

"Right – but the guys don't know it."

"I can still use that, though," Bucky mused, taking off his own shoes before he tugged his shirt up over his head. "But I can use it _tomorrow_."

"What's tonight?" Peggy asked, trying not to make assumptions – not with as much as he had protested sharing a bed with her.

He flung his shirt away and stepped up to her, setting to work on the first button on her top. "Take a guess."

* * *

 _June 9, 2014_

Seventy-two hours ago, Steve had lived alone on his level of the Avengers Tower, and now he was waking up with one of his recently-discovered soulmates curled against him, Bucky and Peggy in the next bedroom over, and – judging by the noise coming down the hallway – his remaining four soulmates were doing _something_ in the kitchen. Even still half asleep, he beamed and tightened his hold on Daniel, just to make sure that this was real and not a dream.

"Good morning," Daniel muttered sleepily.

"Hey," Steve perked up. "I didn't realize you were awake. Is that my fault?"

"No; listen."

Steve froze, his enhanced hearing picking up almost every noise from the bedroom where it sounded like Bucky and Peggy were stirring, and most of what was coming from the kitchen.

"This is not a warzone, Jack Thompson!" Angie shrieked. "No flour bombs! No!" Steve and Daniel chuckled as she dissolved into helpless laughter, gasping, "Anna, Eddie, help! I'm under heavy fire!"

Daniel turned to look at Steve over his shoulder with a playful look in his eyes, and with a simultaneous nod, they scrambled from bed and ran down the hallway, Steve grabbing his shield as they went. He skidded into the kitchen, wrapping one arm around Angie's waist to pull her back behind the cover of his shield as Daniel barreled into Jack, knocking twin fistfuls of flour from the other man's hands. Anna and Eddie both looked on in amusement from their cover on the other side of the counter.

Realizing who held her, Angie turned in Steve's arms, resting her hands on his bare chest as she looked up at him and fluttered her eyelashes, the perfect cinematic damsel in distress as she sighed, "My hero!"

"Better give him a kiss as payment," Bucky suggested from the doorway.

"My plan exactly," Angie declared, rising on her tiptoes to do just that. "Good morning, handsome."

"Good morning, movie star," Steve smiled down at her, holding up his shield so that they had a little more privacy as he stole a second kiss.

"What happened in here?" Peggy demanded, looking around at the flour-covered kitchen with wide eyes.

"Jack," Anna declared as Edwin suggested, "Talk to your husband."

"Don't tell me that Stark doesn't have a cleaning staff for this sort of thing," Jack protested before adding, "Hey, Ang, your pancakes are burning."

Seeing that Angie was going to unwillingly extract herself from Steve's embrace, Eddie rolled his eyes and volunteered. "I'll take care of it."

"Come on, Eddie," Bucky objected. "If you let them keep doing that, I won't have an appetite left!"

"Your appetite will be just fine if I know you," Steve shot back, pulling away from Angie long enough to extend a hand to Bucky.

When Bucky stepped forward, both Steve and Angie claimed one of his hands, the movie star even granting him a kiss on the cheek.

"Pancakes are ready," Edwin declared, taking a platter full of food to the table – apparently he was going to see to it that they had a real breakfast this morning, and wouldn't Darcy be grateful for the help in that?

Anna trailed behind him with a stack of plates and forks and the eight sat down around one end of the ridiculously large dining room table that Tony had brought for every level years before. Steve had scoffed at the purchase at the time, but now he was grateful for it. Yet, looking around at his seven soulmates sitting around him, he was thankful for so much more than tables.

* * *

Loki had no idea how he was going to be received when he came onto Coulson's Playground base, so he decided the least number of choices they were given the better. In the end, he armed himself with a cellular device that JARVIS had been uploaded to, his dagger, and his magic before he teleported directly into Coulson's office.


	12. Chapter 12

The director turned a deathly shade of gray and surged to his feet behind his desk, pointing a gun at Loki and punching a button that had a siren wailing.

The god merely sighed, putting his hands in the air as he offered sardonically, "I come in peace."

"Forgive me for not believing you," Coulson bit out.

Before anything more could be said, a slight Asian woman in a black SHIELD uniform burst into the office, her gun already trained on Loki. He recognized her as Agent Melinda May, one of the two women JARVIS had debriefed him on before he'd come here.

"Perfect," he said happily, "You're just the two I wanted to talk to."

"Oh yeah?" Coulson asked. "Why's that?"

"Because the All-Father has decided – over two years ago now – that I must play matchmaker to the Avengers as penance for my crimes against Midgard."

"And what," Agent May inquired sharply. "Does that have to do with us?"

Loki smirked despite himself. This was a touchy subject for her then – funny, if JARVIS' information on the subject was the truth.

"So you really haven't figured it out on your own, then?"

"Figured out what?" May asked acridly, the tension in the room thick enough to be cut by Loki's dagger.

"And what does any of this have to do with the Avengers?" Coulson demanded.

Loki looked at Coulson, declaring, "The All-Father counts you as an Avenger." He turned to Agent May, "And you are one of his soulmates."

"What?" Coulson choked out in shock, though over which declaration Loki couldn't be sure.

He chose to believe it was the latter. "There's a cellular phone in my left jacket pocket; information on it will help clear this up. Shall I retrieve it or should one of you?" he asked brightly.

Agent May snatched it from his pocket and found his dagger as well. She laid both on the table, demanding, "Now what?"

Loki ignored her, calling out, "JARVIS?"

"Yes, Loki?" the AI replied from the phone.

"JARVIS?" Coulson repeated, eyes going wider. "You're in contact with the Avengers?"

"Where do you think I've been staying during my visits to Midgard?" Loki replied dismissively before asking JARVIS, "SHIELD has constant video surveillance in their facilities correct?"

"Yes, starting in the 1970s. I believe I informed you of that yesterday."

"Indeed you did. And you have access to those files?"

"Of course – anything before the Battle of Manhattan, that is – but you know that too."

Loki ignored the expressions those declarations gleaned from Coulson and May and requested of JARVIS, "Show me the moment Coulson and May met in November of 1982."

"We didn't meet until years after that," Coulson asserted.

"That's what you think," Loki replied as JARVIS began to play the footage.

Two students – one on a phone, the other muttering to herself – ran into each other exiting a class. This elicited an exclamation from her, an apology from him, and then they were both on their way as if nothing had ever happened.

At some point during the showing of the clip Coulson had drifted back into his seat, seeming to forget Loki's presence as he realized faintly, "May, that's us… saying 'oh'-"

May scratched at the back of her right ear subconsciously as she finished, "And 'excuse me.'"

They smiled at one another and Loki could practically _see_ the moment they actually did forget he was there. He grabbed his phone – but left the dagger when he saw the glare May spared him – and murmured, "JARVIS, find me a bunk to teleport to."

He would've loved to return to Avengers Tower, or better yet Asgard, but he couldn't quite yet. He had one more thing he wanted to discuss, ideally with Agent May, but common courtesy and the looks in May's and Coulson's eyes dictated that he allow them at least twenty-four hours to do what new soulmates did. He'd gotten used to ghosting around Avengers Tower, he could manage to do so here for that long. This way he could at least catch some of the rest he very much needed after resurrecting Steve's previously-deceased soulmates.

* * *

"Hello all," Tony said as he stepped off of the elevator and onto Steve's level with Bruce and Pepper. "I come bearing gifts."

Steve arched an eyebrow, repeating, "'Gifts'?"

Tony, Pepper, and Bruce all held up a bottle of sherry. Tony checked the watch on his wrist. "It _is_ eight o'clock, and for as long as I can remember, this is a routine that never changed." He arched an eyebrow towards them, asking, "Are we interested in keeping this tradition alive now?"

"We don't have any Benny Goodman, though," Angie pointed out.

Tony grinned, asking Steve, "Where's your iPod?"

"You hacked it again, didn't you?" Steve deadpanned.

"I did not! I'm offended that you would think that of me, Captain America! No, no, I had Darcy steal it and download what we'd want."

"I'm confused," Bucky muttered. "What are you even talking about?"

"Good question," Steve muttered.

Peggy grinned. "'Seven o'clock dinner, eight o'clock sherry and Benny Goodman, nine o'clock bed'. Eddie and Anna carried sherry and Benny over into our routine at the apartments."

"Steve!" Tony insisted. "iPod?"

The super-soldier rolled his eyes at Tony's childlikeness and got to his feet. By the time he located his iPod in a place that he had definitely _not_ previously left it – _thanks, Darcy_ – and returned to the living room, there were twelve glasses of sherry and Darcy added to the room that's furniture had been pushed to the edge, out of the way.

"What are we supposed to be doing, Stark?" Steve asked, feeling exasperated with the other man as he looked through his iPod and saw how much space had been taken up with the new music.

"Dancing, of course, Cap!"

"I don't know how to dance, Tony!"

"Don't worry about it; you've got one of the best swing jazz teachers I know in this very room."


	13. Chapter 13

Steve eyed Jack, only for the other blond to throw his hands up and take a step back. "I can dance, but I doubt he's talking about me."

"No, I'm not," Tony said, his tone revealing nothing. "If you're as bad as you seem to think you are, though, he'll come over and correct you, I promise. He taught me, anyhow."

"Yes," Anna pointed out. "But you asked for him to teach you."

"I did?"

"You did."

"Hm. I guess the 'rents have a better memory than I do about some things. Okay, Steve, play something. Then you can sit down for a minute if you want to, drink your wine, and observe until you think maybe you could dance."

"That makes the numbers uneven," Jack spoke up. "Peg doesn't dance, remember?"

"Yes, she does," Steve told him, taking Peggy's hand and placing it in Jack's with the gentlest of smiles. "I found more than one right partner; this one is yours for the night."

Jack looked to Peggy for confirmation as she smiled between him and Steve. She winked at Jack, teasing, "Who am I to disobey a captain's orders?"

Steve smiled, took a step back, and started up Benny Goodman before retreating to the couch and picking up a glass of sherry. Tony twirled Darcy into his arms, Edwin extended a hand to Pepper, Bucky snatched Anna up, Daniel stepped up to Angie, Jack drew Peggy close, and Bruce sat down beside Steve.

Glancing from his own glass of sherry to Steve, the doctor asked, "You're not upset with Tony, are you? Having these six here is bringing back a lot of good memories for him, and this is one of those things that he thought maybe he could do for them to show that. To say 'thank you' in a way, I think, and let them know that he's glad they're here."

"Nah, I don't have a problem with it at all. But I still don't know how to dance."

"Do you want a teacher?" Bruce asked. "Because Tony told me who taught him, and – look at him now – he's doing pretty well."

Steve snorted at the sight. "Tony Stark is swing dancing; I never thought I'd see the day. Mr. AC/DC must've had a good musical influence at some point."

"Look around; you'll figure out who. Be brave," Bruce said, teasing lacing his tone as he leaned in and added as the song playing became a slow one, "Talk to the Brits."

Steve gaped at Banner as the other man quickly abandoned his sherry and stood, gaze snapping guiltily to Edwin as Bruce swept Pepper away from the former butler. Had he been ignoring him because he didn't know what to make of the other man's connection to Tony? He didn't think so, but still…

Across the room, Edwin caught him staring and arched an eyebrow curiously. Steve looked away, flushing in embarrassment at being caught – _darn it all, why was he blushing so much since his soulmates came around?_ – as the Englishman started Steve's way. His decision made, Steve downed the entire contents of his glass in one swallow and met him in the middle of their improvised dance floor.

"Teach me?" he asked Edwin nervously.

Edwin smiled, albeit looking a little hesitant in his own right, and positioned Steve's hands where they belonged on his smaller body. "Of course. I'll let you take the lead for this song and see how it goes, and then we can decide where to go from there, alright?"

Steve smiled, taking a step closer to Eddie as he replied, "That sounds just fine by me."

Even though his smile became a little more uncertain, Eddie leaned towards him, letting his head hover a mere centimeter from resting on Steve's shoulder as he murmured instructions. Neither one was entirely comfortable to begin with, but, given time, they began to relax into it.

And wasn't that all that any of them could do in this situation?

* * *

They danced for hours – slow dancing and quick steps, anything went, but mostly they tried to keep to real dances – until their feet were sore and most of them were giggling from an overabundance of sherry. Eventually, Thor came to collect Darcy and Bruce left before he could have too much to drink, Tony and Pepper going with him. Jack and Peggy went to bed, and Daniel and Bucky drifted away to compare metal prosthetics. But Edwin wasn't done teaching yet, and Angie was quite enjoying the comedic value of watching Steve learn, so she grabbed Anna's hand and they danced together across the room from the two men.

"Try again," Eddie murmured encouragingly, lifting his head from Steve's shoulder long enough to nudge the soldier's feet into proper position. Then the warm weight of head on shoulder was back, sherry on his breath as he counted the steps against Steve's ear. He smiled when they made it through the dance without him getting his toes stepped on, kissing Steve's cheek as he declared happily, "Good job."

Steve grinned at the other man, chuckling, "I think you're a little bit drunk, Eddie."

"A little bit," Edwin agreed.

"You should probably go to bed."

Eddie took a step back, his eyes struggling to focus thanks to the amount of alcohol he'd consumed, and Steve took a step away of his own as he answered flippantly, "Yes, we should."

"You are a lightweight who would regret that in the morning, I promise."

There was a spark of something perfectly clear-headed in Eddie's eyes as he answered, "No, I wouldn't." He wrinkled his nose and leaned in closer to Steve again, adding in a whisper, "I don't mind sleeping beside a man… Just don't let Jack know yet."

Steve snorted and squeezed Eddie's shoulder as he laughed, "Eddie, I think I love you."

"I love you too," Eddie replied, tugging on Steve's hand. "Now come on. I wanna go to sleep."

Steve looked at Anna and Angie, a question in his eyes, only to find them both making shooing motions. "That settles that," Steve decided, following Eddie towards the hallway. "I'm outnumbered."

"And completely unhappy about it!" Bucky called out jokingly from the balcony, his enhanced hearing having caught the entire conversation.

"I didn't say that!" Steve shot back merrily.


	14. Chapter 14

"Anna's gonna come get him tonight, I bet," Daniel remarked to Bucky.

Listening to the way Anna and Angie were laughing together in the living room, Bucky muttered under his breath to himself with a slight frown, "Ten bucks says she doesn't."

"I wouldn't mind if she didn't," Daniel remarked, as if reading in Bucky's thoughts what he was concerned about.

And for the second time, Daniel slept beside a man who wasn't Jack.

* * *

 _June 10, 2014_

Loki had asked that JARVIS alert him the first moment Agent May was outside of Coulson's hearing range, and as he'd predicted, that didn't happen until the next morning. When she came into the lounge in search of a couple of cups of coffee, Loki teleported to stand directly in front of her.

Her happy expression turned to one of irritation at the sight of him, but he shoved a slip of paper into her hand before she could speak. "The cellist's address. Audrey Nathan. You'll want to speak to her immediately and probably without consulting Coulson."

Then he teleported straight back to his bunk and waited for the explosion that was to come.

* * *

For the second morning in as many days, Daniel woke to the sound of his wife screaming good-naturedly at Jack. "Would you _stop_ tossing that?! You're going to bruise it!" "No, don't you throw that at me!"

"What's the matter, Betty Carver, don't you want Captain America to come rescue you again?" Jack teased.

Bucky shifted in the bed beside Daniel, asking softly, "Who's Betty Carver?"

Before Daniel could explain about the radio show, Jack suddenly yelped, "Ouch, Peg! I wasn't lobbing entire apples _at people_! Geez! _Anna_ , make her stop!"

"You brought that on yourself!" Angie declared cheerfully.

Suddenly there was a knock on the bedroom door and Bucky sprang up before Daniel could even contemplate moving, cracking the door open to reveal Steve and Eddie standing there.

"Should we go investigate that?" Steve asked, nodding towards the kitchen, and Daniel noticed in amusement that he once again had his shield in hand.

"Nah," Daniel drawly, rolling out of bed. "If it's all three of the girls against Jack, he's probably the one who needs the help."

"We know he needs _help_ ," Bucky tapped his head. "But does he also need the kind of help that we can provide?" He pointed indicatively towards Steve's shield.

"Well, if they're lobbing apples, I want under the shield too," Daniel declared. "I can't hold my metal leg in front of my face like Bucky can his arm."

"Come here," Steve smiled, pulling Daniel close. "How are you doing this lovely morning?"

Daniel smiled, "Good." He glanced over at Eddie while the other man wasn't paying attention, asking Steve, "And how are you?"

"Great! I learned that Eddie's not as much of a lightweight as I thought, apparently."

Hearing their conversation, Bucky commented, "Anna must not be the only one with tricks up her sleeve."

That Eddie heard, and grinned back at Steve as he said succinctly, "She is not. Now," he nodded towards the kitchen. "Shall we proceed into the war zone?"

The four of them smiled, Bucky shielding his face with his arm as the other three men clustered in the general area of behind Steve's shield.

"Charge!" Steve cried.

"Is every morning going to be like this?" Eddie asked, looking torn between happy and exasperated as they "invaded" the kitchen and Steve demanded a little order.

Daniel grinned at him, his own eyes sparkling. "I sure hope so."

* * *

Melinda May wasn't anybody's fool; even though she'd never met the legendary-among-the-team cellist, Audrey Nathan, in person, she'd heard enough over time to come to the conclusion that Audrey was Phil's soulmate. Then she'd learned that she herself was Phil's other soulmate, and that had thrown an entirely different perspective onto Miss Nathan. It meant that she was Melinda's soulmate too. Then Loki had shoved a piece of paper into her hand and firmly suggested that she go to meet Audrey at her address in Portland. So now there Melinda was, leaning against the other woman's door and waiting for her to come home – hopefully soon before Phil figured out where she'd taken one of the quinjets.

As if she'd heard Melinda's thoughts, a pretty brunette about a dozen years her junior came jogging up the apartment complex steps, slowing nervously as she eyed Melinda. So this was Audrey Nathan, the cellist.

Melinda said, "Hey there, soulmate."

Audrey's eyes widened and she stumbled; Melinda darted forward just in time to catch her arm. Audrey carefully pulled her arm away, giving Melinda a quick once over.

Something in Melinda's bearing must have given her away, because the cellist took one look at her and groaned, "Oh lord, you're SHIELD too, aren't you?"

"Is that okay?"

"Yeah… It's just, ah, been a long time since I've had a soulmate around." She looked hesitantly from beneath her eyelashes, "I guess you know that Phil died?"

"Yeah." _I know more than that._ "Do you mind if we go inside?"

"Are we safe?" Audrey asked, her gaze flitting nervously around as if to locate a threat.

"We're safe," Melinda promised, "I just want to talk to you about something."

"Oh," Audrey exhaled in relief and gestured to her apartment door. "Sure. Okay." Once they were safely inside and sitting at her kitchen table, Audrey asked, "How did you know where to find me?"

"That is a surprisingly long story."

"Try me."

Melinda paused a beat before asking, "What if I told you Phil was alive?"

"I would say that I didn't believe you. His mark is behind my left ear – has been since I was born – and one day the color faded into an outline. That means that he's dead."

"Hm."

"What?"

"His writing on me is on the back of my right ear. May I see it?"

"Your writing or his?" Audrey asked hesitantly.

Seeing the look on the other woman's face, Melinda suggested, "How about just his for now?"

They both stood from the table and Audrey turned her back to Melinda, sweeping her ponytail out of the way as she asked, "Can you see it? I can't without the help of a couple of mirrors and what's practically a gymnastic move."

"Yeah, I can see it," Melinda answered. "And they're definitely in color."


	15. Chapter 15

"That's not possible," Audrey insisted again, turning to look at Melinda.

"But it is this time," Melinda said, trying to break the truth to her gently. The words are pewter gray, I promise. I'll even show you mine; they'll be the same color."

Audrey stared at her for a long beat before she made a "turn around" motion with her finger, the only sound in the room her gasp when she saw Phil's gray "excuse me" on Melinda – completely in color.

"I felt when Phil died," Melinda murmured, turning to face the pale, trembling Audrey.

"So did I!"

"But four days later I felt a similar burning," Melinda continued. "So I looked at my soul mark, and it was in color again."

Audrey sat down heavily in a chair, looking confused as she began to recount her side of the story. "Five days after my soulmark disappeared, Nick Fury personally came to my house and told me what I already knew – that Phil had died." Melinda ground her teeth, promising herself that she would have words with Fury at the soonest opportunity. To come here and say those things the day after they'd officially brought Phil back was unforgivable! Audrey was still talking, though, so Melinda refocused her attention to her. "But before that – on the fourth day, like you said – well… I had been a real wreck, hadn't even left my house. An old friend of mine from high school was concerned about me. She came to the house and told me that we were going out for lunch, and all but dragged me to this outdoor diner across town. My ear started to burn while we were there. I assumed it was just a bug bite, but I couldn't bring myself to look back there yet, see the empty words… so I never did. You're telling me that he's been alive all this time?" Melinda nodded, to which Audrey demanded, "Where is he? I want to see him."

"I expected that you would want to." Melinda started for the apartment door, asking, "How do you feel about flying?"

"I love it."

Melinda grinned at the other woman, thinking that maybe they _could_ become best friends after all, as she asked, "Do you want to learn how to fly a quinjet?"

"Isn't there some SHIELD rule against that?" Audrey questioned as they walked out together.

Melinda smirked. "For you I think our new director had better make an exception."

* * *

The door to the bunkroom that Loki had unofficially claimed swung open with a crash and Loki startled into wakefulness, worried he'd been caught by someone who didn't have to know he was here. That would be an entirely unnecessary complication that he wanted nothing to do with.

But it was just Coulson – a furious Coulson, but still just Coulson.

"Where. _Is. She?_ " Coulson ground out, towering over Loki until the god sat up on the bunk.

The lie slid easily off of his tongue. "I don't know."

"You're lying," Coulson accused, jamming a finger into his face.

"Am I?" Loki asked calmly.

Suddenly another door opened from somewhere nearby and a voice that Loki had never heard before – this woman's tone more livid than Coulson's – howled, " _Phil Coulson_!"

Unlike Loki, Coulson obviously recognized the voice, going white as a sheet as his mouth dropped open uselessly. A second later, he gathered his wits about him enough to accuse Loki in a whispered hiss, "You had something to do with this! How else would she be here? This is all on you!"

Loki grinned and stood, taking Coulson by the shoulders and pushing him the couple of steps out of the bunkroom as he admitted, "Yes, if that's who I think it is. You're welcome."

Then he slammed the door behind Coulson and went back to his bunk and back to sleep. If someone – like Coulson – was murdered – again – in the brewing conversation between the trio he'd need to be well-rested to resurrect him.

"You don't think you could handle this a little better?" JARVIS asked from the phone that Loki had discarded onto the floor.

"I could," Loki agreed, even going so far to say, "I probably should. But then again, that woman probably wants to kill me as much as Agent May does, and Coulson _did_ wake me up from my nap."

"Would you like me to wake you when it sounds like things have calmed down between the three of them?" JARVIS queried, managing to sound disapproving of Loki's reasoning in the matter.

"Yes, thank you."

"One of us has to be a decent human being."

"Neither one of us are human," Loki snorted.

"Indeed, you are not," JARVIS scoffed.

Loki reached onto the floor and turned off the phone. He could wake up when he woke up.

* * *

In the end, he was woken anyway, by a sharp handclap near his ear. Loki instinctively skittered away from the sound, only to find himself staring at Coulson once again.

"Get off of my base," the director ordered firmly. "We're all good here now."

Something told Loki that probably wasn't true – that he more than likely hadn't seen the last of Phil Coulson – but at the moment he didn't feel like kicking a gift horse in the teeth. If Coulson said that things were fine on his base, then – until Loki heard differently from JARVIS, Odin, Heimdall, or some other source – things were fine on this base.

So now where did he go?

He waited, wanting Coulson to leave so that he could turn the cellular phone back on and ask JARVIS, but he realized that Coulson wasn't going to leave him alone. He wanted him off the base, and he wanted him off now.

"Don't you have soulmates to bond with?" Loki snarled.

"Don't you have innocents to murder?" Coulson snapped back.

"That wasn't my own doing," Loki informed him with a soft sigh, bearing changing instantly.

Coulson repeated his words from earlier in Loki's visit – "Forgive me for not believing you" – and Loki merely shook his head before he gave up, grabbed the phone, and asked, "Are you going to return my dagger to me?"

Coulson's smile was all flatness and sharp eyes as he said sweetly, "Maybe next time you drop by."


	16. Chapter 16

"I'll hold you to that," Loki promised before teleporting off of the base and choosing a destination nearly at random. "It was a gift from my mother."

He ended up in the Canadian wilderness, snow and blissfully cold air swirling around him as he stood outside of the one thing he did require – a portal back to Asgard in case it was necessary. Then he turned on the phone and asked, "JARVIS?"

"Yes?"

"Where to next?"

"I believe that you would do best to lay low for a while."

Loki snorted. "What about Natasha and her little bird? Don't they have two more soulmates out there somewhere?"

"Yes, but I'm not telling you where yet. Judging by some of the files that I garnered from Director Coulson while we were at the Playground, there are things that may soon start happening that you don't need to tamper with."

"But I'm so close to completing my mission!"

It came out of his mouth as a whine, and he knew it did, but he was growing ridiculously tired of this – more of the constant press of loneliness than anything, really, but still… Couldn't getting this soulmate stupidity over with alleviate his desire for his own soulmate? That, more than anything, was what he wanted at this point.

"What you are," JARVIS accused. "Is impatient."

He sighed heavily, declaring, "I'm going back to Asgard." Maybe he would get a different answer – a _better_ answer – there.

For the second time that day, he turned the phone off.

* * *

The first words that Heimdall greeted Loki with when the Jotun landed on Asgard were, "You're growing too impatient, my prince."

"So I've heard," Loki ground out. "Now, answer me this: Where are Hawkeye and Black Widow's other soulmates?"

"Busy."

"I. Want. Locations!" he ground out.

"Now is not the time for you to get involved," Heimdall answered, steady as ever, and it made Loki want to beat him over the head.

"Then, _what_ , exactly, am I supposed to do?"

"I've already discussed it with the king. You are to remain involved in the activities of the Avengers and SHIELD until it is time for you to return to the All-Father's mission for you."

"He wants me to _live_ with them again?" Loki asked acridly, hardly believing what he was hearing. "You cannot possibly be serious!"

"Oh, but I am. You've not completed your punishment yet, therefore you are not yet in good standing with Asgard, nor cleared of your crimes. Although I'm sure if it's Asgard that you can't live without, your old cell could almost certainly be arranged to accommodate you. Otherwise you are free to return to either Avengers Tower or the Playground. Either way, rest more; you're in an awfully foul mood."

Loki glared very long and very hard back at Heimdall, making sure the gatekeeper knew how displeased he was, before he went back the way he had come. He sat at the base of a tree, once again the Canadian wilderness, and thought. On one hand, the Avengers hated him but _might_ be kind to him because of how he'd managed to find most of them their soulmates, on the other hand, the agents of the Playground also hated him, but it might not necessarily be a _bad_ idea to try to get them to see his side of things. Try to get them to understand exactly how big a roll Thanos had played in the events of the Battle of Manhattan.

In the end, he sighed irritably and turned the Norn-forsaken cellular device on again.

"You have need of me again, I take it?" JARVIS asked, his tone clipped, with a hated thread of amusement underneath.

"Would you at least answer me this: do I have further business with Coulson's people on the Playground?"

JARVIS waited for a long moment – running through scenarios, he'd heard Tony claim once – until he said simply, "Yes."

"I don't suppose you'd like to tell me how?"

"I don't presume to know the answer to that question anyway; I can't tell the future. I can only-"

"Run scenarios, I know. Whatever that means."

"Would you like me to tell you?"

"No."

"I thought not. What are you planning to do, then?"

Loki leaned his head back against the tree, thinking aloud. "If I return to the Playground and gain some form of acceptance there, can you keep me up to date on the goings-on in Avengers Tower?"

"Of course. But I'm not capable of doing the opposite, seeing as I'm not installed in the Playground base."

"Very well. I suppose that settles that," Loki muttered, standing to his feet.

Now, how to convince Coulson to let him stay?

He teleported back into the Playground, putting his foot in the door of Coulson's office right before it closed behind the trio of soulmates. "I need help, a place to stay with you for a little while."

After recovering from the shock of Loki's sudden reappearing, Coulson snorted, declaring, "And I need you off of my base or six feet under. What are the chances that either one of us get what we need today?"

Loki glanced over Coulson's shoulder at the two women waiting for him, saying pointedly, "Not very likely unless you hear me out."

Irritation flared over Coulson's face before he ground out, "Go back to your bunk and stay there until I or Melinda come get you."

Loki raised an eyebrow, remarking, "She's 'Melinda' already, is she?"

Coulson kicked Loki's foot out of the way and slammed the door in his face. The god teleported back to his bunk and curled up to continue his nap, prepared to waste another twenty-four hours waiting for Coulson to retrieve him.

However, he discovered, it could be difficult to sleep when he was on alert for every noise that passed by the closed door. A young woman's hearty laugh, the light footfalls of one of SHIELD's trained specialist… a young man pacing in the hallway as he muttered to himself.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapters 5, 6, and 8-16 of this story were edited on 9/20/15. Trying to complete the updates for this story is why it took so long for me to update it. Sorry for the wait! Enjoy!**

* * *

Loki sat up as the sounds persisted. He had to start acquainting himself with these people at some point, didn't he? And whoever was pacing outside of the bunkroom didn't sound like he planned on going anywhere for a while. Getting up from the bed and wishing that he didn't have to, Loki opened the bunker door to see a ginger twenty-something in a sweater, talking to himself and patting his own shoulder. The god raised an eyebrow. Surely that wasn't normal behavior for all of Coulson's new team?

The irritated "Can I help you?" that Loki had planned to say somehow turned into a slightly concerned, "Do you need some help?" as it came out of his mouth.

The boy whipped around to face him with a gasp, eyes widening as he recognized the Jotun.

"No, don't-" Loki started, but the man was already running back down the hallway. "-Run." He shut the door to the bunker and banged his head against it. Well, that had been a brilliant start to getting to know Coulson's team.

An hour later, the cellphone that Loki had relegated to his pocket chirped, and he opened it to see a text message from a "Leopold Fitz."

 _Are you Loki?_

Loki replied, _Who are you?_

A picture followed. Ah, the boy from earlier had a name now. He was Leopold Fitz.

 _Yes, I'm Loki._

 _Why are you here?_

Loki laughed mirthlessly. _It's a long story, but I'm not going to hurt anyone._

 _Good. Does Coulson know?_

 _Yes._

 _You hungry for supper?_

"Am I…?" Well, yes, he was, now that he thought about it. _Yes._

 _Give me ten minutes._

Ten minutes passed, then eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen… Loki was beginning to assume that he'd been forgotten when someone knocked on the bunkroom door. He opened it to find Leopold Fitz with sandwiches and chips on two plates.

He accepted one of the plates, and the boy shifted awkwardly. Loki wanted the door to his tiny sanctuary shut, and this young man obviously wanted company. In the end, Loki's curiosity won out, and he said, "If you want to sit on the bed together, you can come in, but that's the only way we'll fit in here together."

Leopold Fitz nodded and slid past Loki and onto the bed. Loki didn't miss the outline of some sort of weapon underneath his sweater. Had that been there before?

Mentally shrugging it off – what could mortal weapons really do against him anyway? – Loki settled onto the other end of the bed with the plate in his lap, and took a bite of the sandwich as Leopold asked, choosing his words carefully, like a child who was learning a new language, "Can you… tell me… your 'l-long story' now?"

"Is that all you wanted?" Loki asked curiously – because this young man was obviously of the non-threatening variety. "An interrogation? Does Coulson know you're in here? Did he send you for some reason?"

"You're the o-one who's… int… inter… interrogating," Leopold muttered. "And, no… no, and no."

"Then what do you want?"

"Company?" Leopold shrugged, muttering under his breath, "To feel u-useful?"

"You do make a good sandwich," Loki remarked.

The boy smiled – or was it a smirk? – before he said, "It was-wasn't sup… supposed to… take me so… so long to… to make them. My m-mot… motor skills. A-a-are… shot."

"As are your nerves," Loki hummed softly, watching the way Leopold was practically shaking. The boy may have wanted company, but he was plainly terrified of the company he'd chosen. "Relax; I won't hurt you." Loki found his smile turning downright gentle as he murmured, "Nerves won't help the stammering."

"You," Leopold arched his eyebrow sarcastically. "You would… would know?"

Loki shrugged. "Once upon a time, yes. I was not a well-liked child; people, especially those my own age, made me nervous constantly, and in trying to play myself up, I became so shaken that I stammered and did the opposite." Then he blinked, realizing what he'd just admitted to. _Where had that come from?_

Leopold took a deep breath to calm himself before he asked, "What… changed?"

"I learned not to care what people thought." Loki smiled sadly. "It's not necessarily a skill that I would encourage anyone to cultivate to the extent that I have."

Leopold's brow knit together as he tried to think of a way to phrase what he wanted to say – and Loki was certainly curious in his own right, with questions of his own, but he waited patiently, sensing that somehow he might've found the one person who needed a real friend more than he did at the moment. "If," Leopold began slowly. "Y-you do-don't c-care, th-th-the-then-"

Pity for this poor young man striking him with more sympathy then he'd felt in nearly decades, Loki rested a hand on the tattered sweater that covered the boy's arm, urging, "Take a breath and try again."

Leopold closed his eyes and obeyed, continuing, "Why are… you… here?"

Loki sat back, leaning his head against the wall as he told his meal companion, "That is my 'long story.' Would you still like to hear it?"

He nodded, so Loki told him. He told him all of it, more than he had perhaps told anyone else besides Frigga. But then, he reasoned, with all the trouble that the boy seemed to have with words, he doubted the information would be going anywhere anyway.

"Soul…mates… huh?" Leopold asked when Loki was done telling his tale. "Do… you… think… y-you could-could help… me and… Jemma?"

"Who is that?"

Leopold frowned, tapped his right wrist. "Soulmate. Mine. I…" He swallowed, and Loki wondered if, this time, he was having a different sort of difficulty saying the words. "I… said… that… it would… be… us… against… the…world… forever… but," Leopold shook his head, cradling his wrist to himself like it was broken.

 _And maybe, in a way, something connected to that wrist_ was _broken_ , Loki mused, if he did actually see colored words underneath the sweater's weave there.

"Where is she now?" he asked, amazed by how gentle his own voice sounded.


	18. Chapter 18

Leopold shrugged, made a face. "M-mish-mission. C-Coulson wo-won't… say…more."

"Undercover, then, probably?"

Again, Leopold shrugged, repeating, "Won't… say."

Loki thought of JARVIS, sitting silent on the phone in his pocket. "I could find out for you, perhaps, if you'd like?"

Leopold made a face, thinking hard. At length he sighed, unhappily muttering, "No. Y-you… don't… need… more… trouble… with… Coulson."

He had a point. "Very well."

"What about you?" Loki inquired. "Why are you here?"

Leopold smiled sadly, like he knew exactly what Loki's first thought about him had been and why he was asking the question. "I'm… an…eng-engineering… doctor." He winced, shrugged, adding, "Prodigy."

"You're brilliant," Loki realized thoughtfully.

Leopold flushed modestly, shrugged again, and tapped his temple. "Here." Then his finger moved to his mouth. "Dumb… here… now."

The frustration was clear on his face, and Loki frowned. "When I was younger, before language became so ridiculously watered down, 'dumb' meant 'unable to speak at all.' You're certainly not that. Have you always stammered like this?"

Leopold shook his head, sorting through words and thoughts before he offered a weak smile and the declaration, "Long story."

Loki returned the careful smiled before saying, "My point is that if you _weren't_ always this way, you likely _won't_ always be this way. You'll find your voice again, I believe."

"At… least… you… believe… that."

The depressed pessimism in Leopold's voice bothered Loki, and the god asked lightly, "Would your Jemma want you to talk like that?"

"She… left… She… ca-can't… be-believe… i-i-it… e-ei-ei-eith-either then! Sh-sh-she l-l-left m-m-m-me!"

He was trembling now, hurt and agitated, and as his composure slipped away, so did his already tumultuous grasp on speech. Loki did the only thing he could think of, reaching forward to grab his shoulders.

"Leopold!"

The doctor took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm himself even as he muttered irritably, "I… guess… this… is… the… point… where… you… tell… me… that... I'm... overreacting?"

"I don't know the situation, Leopold," Loki said honestly. "I don't know what to tell you."

"You want to know what _I_ would tell you?" The displeasure in Coulson's voice was plain as he glared down on Loki and Leopold sitting on the bed. They hadn't even heard him open the bunker door. "I would tell you, Fitz, to get back to work. _Now_." Coulson gestured in the direction of the lab, and Leopold scrambled guiltily to his feet and away. Once he was out of hearing range, Coulson's flinty gaze turned to Loki. "And I would tell _you_ to stay away from my people, from this team, and _certainly_ away from Fitz. He's going through some rough stuff right now and _does not_ need you adding to it, am I clear?"

"What he needs," Loki said succinctly. "Is a friend, someone to talk to who will take the time to _listen_ to him. He feels useless in the lab, and I daresay that he simply doesn't like being in there alone, either."

"The person who befriends him is not going to be you," Coulson declared with a derogative snort. "And for the record, I'm perfectly aware of the fact that he needs someone; we have a very good candidate for that joining the team within six months."

"He needs someone sooner than in six months!"

"Then I'll see what I can do," Coulson declared witheringly. "Not that you really care."

"As a matter of fact, I do," Loki replied archly, his hackles rising for reasons that he didn't understand. "And speaking of caring, shouldn't you be _caring_ for the _needs_ of your soulmates?"

"I would be, if I hadn't heard Fitz shouting," Coulson answered smoothly.

"He's not shouting anymore," Loki snarled, closing the bunker door in Coulson's face. "So you can continue your more important business and leave me be."

Listening to the sound of Coulson's footsteps fading away, Loki laid down on the bunk for the night, glad that the man was allowing him his way for once. Yet suddenly he felt bereft of something that he couldn't quite identify.

* * *

Heimdall sighed in exasperation, looking down on Loki in the Playground. Only hours ago, he'd told the young prince not to mettle, and now, inadvertently or not, he'd put the thought in Coulson's mind, and there was a fair chance that something was going to shift in the fates because of it.

The gatekeeper only hoped that no one got hurt in the process.

* * *

 _June 11, 2014_

It was still early in the morning when Loki was awoken by a knock at his bunk's door. He groaned, forcing alertness to overcome his tiredness. Was he never to overcome the effects of bringing Captain Roger's soulmates back to life?!

He was surprised at the early intrusion, having not expected to hear from Coulson for a good many hours yet. But when he opened the bunk door, it wasn't Coulson standing there at all.

He blinked in surprise down at Leopold before declaring, "You shouldn't be here. Coulson's orders."

"Coulson's orders… were… to…'get back'… 'to work.' I… have… no… work." Leopold shrugged. "Useless… remember?"

Loki gave him a disapproving look. "I doubt that quite highly."

Leopold gave him a lopsided grin, making an attempt at a joke when he held up two bowls of cereal and offered, "Because… I… made… break-fast?"

"Because you're a brilliant prodigy, by your own admission. Now. Coulson won't be happy to see you here again."

"Coulson's…" Leopold rolled his eyes. " _Busy_ … still."

"I've seen enough soulmate meetings in the last while to believe that, unless forced to, he won't make an appearance for all of today."

"So… no… shouting… and… we're… fine." Loki arched an eyebrow at him, silently asking how he'd heard Coulson's remark yesterday. Leopold looked away nervously, admitting, "I… ducked… behind… a… corner."

"And listened in on your boss?" Loki smirked. "Unprofessional and unwise."

"He… was… distracted… all… day."

"I wonder why," Loki drawled.

"May… Miss… Nathan."

Loki smiled, feeling a little happy at the mention of the completed soulmate trio and his part in that even if he was still irritated with the man himself. "I know."


	19. Chapter 19

"Here," Leopold said suddenly, shoving one of the bowls at Loki and forcing his way into the room when he realized that the god was still debating the wisdom of letting him in at all.

Loki smiled, glad to have the company, as he gave up and the two men settled onto the bed as they had last evening. "Thank you for breakfast." He took a bite, by now well-acquainted with cold breakfast cereals thanks to Jane and Darcy, and the two men studied one another for a moment. When he swallowed the sugary mouthful, he said, "Yesterday, I told you my long story about why I was here. Would you tell me your long story behind your stammering?" Leopold made a face and bit his lip, thinking it through, but he obviously didn't want to talk about it. "Jemma, then?" Loki suggested. "How did you meet her?"

Here, finally, Leopold smiled. It was a bittersweet sort of smile, but a smile nonetheless as he began with the single word "school."

* * *

 _June 12, 2014_

Seeing as Leopold had spent most of the previous day talking with Loki, when a knock sounded on his bunk door the next morning, the god – who had been waiting for Leopold to come again, not that he would admit it – sprang up out of bed easily and opened the door, already wearing a small smile. Then he frowned, seeing that Leopold wasn't the person waiting outside the door. As predicted, Coulson hadn't shown up at all yesterday, but he was here now.

"I want you gone, Loki," Coulson demanded the moment the door was shut. "Only a few of the members of my team even know you're here, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Out of curiosity, who is aware of my presence?"

"Melinda, myself, Fitz… and Audrey knows you're here, but not who you are." Coulson smirked. "Even I'm not that cruel."

"To which of us?" Loki countered evenly.

But Coulson was obviously in no joking mood, ordering flatly, "Get off my base."

"Very well," Loki agreed, thinking of Leopold and suddenly wishing that he didn't have to go; he would even be willing to face Miss Nathan if that would be helpful. "But could you at least tell Leopold I said 'goodbye'? That I'm glad to have met him."

"We'll see," Coulson decided, eyes narrowed, and Loki knew that the sentiment wouldn't be passed on. "Now, leave. If you need a place to stay, go back to the Avengers. I don't care to see you again."

"Perhaps you won't," Loki allowed, even though he still felt that somehow his job here was incomplete. Or was it that he desired to help Leopold merely of his own accord? Wait, there was one more thing he wanted to know. "That friend for Leopold…"

"Will be joining us in the latest part of August. I talked to him after yours and mine little chat, and he's agreed to come then, but can't come earlier. That really is the best I can do."

Loki nodded and checked to make sure that the cell phone was in his pocket, preparing to teleport.

"Take this with you," Coulson said suddenly, and when Loki looked down into his outstretched hand, there lay the dagger that Frigga had given to her son long ago. "I told you you'd get it back when you stopped by a second time, and you did leave and come back, so here."

Loki smiled carefully, accepting the dagger and putting it in its sheath at his waist. He'd honestly wondered if maybe he'd seen the last of his favorite weapon, but apparently Coulson was something of a man of his word. "Thank you." He frowned before saying sincerely, "And, for what little it may or may not be worth to you, I am sorry. You're an admirable man, Phil Coulson, and I nearly wish that we could've been friends."

Coulson looked a little shocked before he managed sardonically, "Yeah, well, maybe one day we can get together over a keg of Asgardian mead and discuss how much of a thorn in the side Barton can be."

Loki winced at the reminder of that particular past sin, but managed the smallest of smiles at the intended joke. "I look forward to it. Until next time, director."

He teleported before Coulson could say anything in disagreement, this time knowing to go directly to his room in Avengers Tower. He took the powered-off phone out of his pocket and dropped it onto the bedside table, then thought of something and picked it back up. Turning it on, he maneuvered his way to the strand of texts he and Leopold had sent one another that first day and typed _I left the Playground, Have returned to Avengers Tower. I enjoyed getting to know you._ He worried at his lip with his teeth, trying to decide what one was supposed to say to someone who had so inexplicably become so important to them within the space of two days. He settled on _You can text me whenever you like. Goodbye until next time_ and sent the text. Then he slipped the phone back into his pocket – just in case Leopold needed him for some reason.

* * *

 _August 22, 2014_

In adjusting to a place like Avengers Tower, Jack had learned to get used to the unusual… to see it as normal. By now, he was used to what daily life there meant. It meant truly strange things like the Hulk, the Iron Legion, and Asgardians, but it also meant getting used to other things that maybe weren't considered so strange in this day and age. It meant seeing Edwin curl up between Steve and Danny sometimes during movie nights. It meant seeing Tony be almost as touch-oriented with Bruce as he was with Pepper, it meant noticing that with Thor there to ground them as both of their soulmate, Jane and Darcy were becoming much more loving towards one another… and it meant realizing that, now that he had all of his soulmates nearby, maybe Jack wanted that too.


	20. Chapter 20

No, now that Jack thought about it, it meant really acknowledging what he'd known for years – even decades. Soulbonds weren't lopsided in their inclinations; while Darcy started changing the way she acted with Jane, Jane was starting to change the way she acted around Darcy too. Soulbonds were in sync like that. Which ultimately meant that if Daniel was willing to share a room with Jack, well… Jack was okay with doing it, too. It had simply become a matter of acknowledging that fact. And, really, he knew it wasn't as big a deal as he had made it out to be.

In the end, Jack did the one thing he could think of and went in search of Bucky. If Steve had been holding Daniel's hand throughout this – occasionally not to figuratively – than Bucky had been the one playing the opposite side of things and not so subtly pushing Jack in the right direction.

He ended up locating his soulmate in the gym, halfway through murdering a punching bag. "You're right, you know," the blond man declared, stepping up behind the punching bag and holding it steady while Bucky swung.

Bucky's eyes snapped to Jack's and there was something dark, not right, in them, but his voice was normal as he asked, "About what?"

It wasn't the snappy "yeah, I know," that Jack had anticipated, but he figured that Bucky was simply concentrating on his training so he went ahead. "About me needing to just man up and be willing to share my space with you guys."

"Figure that out all on your own, did you?" Bucky grunted, slugging the bag so hard that Jack winced from the recoil.

"Hardly," Jack snorted. "You definitely helped."

Bucky laughed, a self-loathing sound that made worry slither up Jack's spine, and this time when the bag was hit he flew back and the punching bag sailed across the room, completely torn from its rigging. As Jack skidded across the floor, Bucky lowered his head, breathing harder than he should've been even after that last swing. Something was definitely wrong with the super soldier.

Sitting up carefully as the room stopped spinning, Jack called out carefully, "Bucky? What's wrong?"

"Are you okay?" Bucky asked hollowly, not even a finger twitching as his expression stayed hidden behind the curtain of his hair.

Jack winced as he stood up, absently realizing that his side was going to be bruised tomorrow from how he'd landed, and started across the room towards his soulmate. "I'm fine. What about you?" Bucky shook his head and stayed silent, trying to dodge him when Jack came to stand in front of him. Jack wanted to reach out and grab him, shake him out of wherever he was inside his own head, but Steve had learned the hard way not to touch him when he was like this, and had relayed the message to the rest of them. Instead, he gently demanded, "Talk to me, Bucky."

"Every time," Bucky muttered, as much to himself as to Jack. "I think I remember it all, that I couldn't have done anything worse than what I already recall, something else comes back to me."

"You wanna talk it out?" Jack offered, knowing that Steve and Peggy, even Daniel and Eddie, had gotten him to do so before and it had helped.

Jack, however, had never been put in the position to try; he'd never even seen Bucky like this before. Well, now he had, and he wasn't about to try and keep his distance when his soulmate so obviously needed help. He was done with that, with keeping so many things to himself.

However, Bucky obviously wasn't. In answer to Jack's question, he shook his head stubbornly and sloughed across the room to retrieve the fallen punching bag.

"Bucky," Jack coaxed. His presence was entirely ignored as Bucky tossed the broken punching bag into a corner and set up a fresh one to demolish. So Jack took a risk and slid between Bucky and the punching bag, demanding as gently as before, "Talk to me."

Bucky glared at him, sighed, and shoved him a couple of steps out of the line of fire before he began swinging punches. "I killed Stark."

Jack's eyes widened, his thoughts instantly snapping to Tony. "When?" he managed.

"December seventeenth, 1991," Bucky murmured, and Jack barely kept from staggering back a couple of steps with relief.

 _He's talking about Howard._ "Everybody dreamed about killing Stark every once in a while," Jack declared lightly. "It's no surprise that HYDRA wanted him dead too. When you think about it, really, you did the world a public service."

Bucky shook his head, muttering, "Not Tony, not my soulmates." He froze, declaring bitterly, "That must've destroyed Eddie."

"Peggy was the only one of us still alive," Jack reminded him, glad to give him that little bit of relief.

"Except for Tony."

"Except for Tony."

"Who is now twenty versions of a wreck."

"I'd like to think he's only… maybe seven versions of a wreck, between the eight of us and both of his soulmates being around now. Howard was a poor influence on his kid anyway."

"Doesn't mean I can't hate myself for killing him."

"You shouldn't hate yourself for _anything_ that the Winter Soldier did under HYDRA."

"Doesn't mean I don't."

Jack frowned and found himself nodding, muttering, "I know."

Bucky smirked at him from the corner of his eye. "What exactly do you think you know?"

"What it is to hate yourself," Jack replied instantly. At Bucky's skeptical side eye, he muttered, "You're not the only one in the world who's ever hated themselves, or done something that you wished you could take back."

Bucky turned fully to Jack now, eyebrows raised and arms crossed over his chest. He was waiting for either an explanation or an example. Jack decided that the latter would be easier to give. He pulled his red t-shirt over his head, catching the curious glint in his soulmate's eyes before he turned his back towards him.


	21. Chapter 21

"Between my shoulder blades," was the only explanation he offered, and Bucky stepped forward, his metal fingertips ghosting over the pale blue words as he muttered them under his breath.

" _Next time you consider threatening someone with deportation – don't!_ " Jack's skin jumped at the cool touch of metal, and Bucky withdrew his hand as he muttered, "Anna says a lot of unusual things, doesn't she?"

"Anna gets nervous meeting new people and interesting things come out of her mouth," Jack explained.

"So what does," Bucky tapped Jack's words carefully. "This have to do with anything?"

"Self-hatred," Jack answered, turning around to face Bucky. "I said and did things to get to the top of SHIELD that I am _not_ proud of. One of those things was that the day Daniel and I met Eddie, we took him into SHIELD and I interrogated him, trying to get information on Stark. Loyal as Eddie is, he didn't give in. So I got mean, played dirty, even though by that point I was pretty sure that we were soulmates, and that Anna was my soulmate too. I used Anna against him, threatened to deport them both. He would've been sent back to England, she to Hungary, and everything the six of us had the first time around would've been totally different – because we wouldn't have had them there. But when we met, as I was interrogating, I had a job to do, Eddie was the means to an end, Anna was the means to _his_ end, and that was just… the way I thought. I don't like myself for it now – heck, I didn't even like myself for it then – but I get what you're saying. Here's what _I'm_ saying: that's who I was at the time." He eyed Bucky pointedly, adding, "But it's not who I am now. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I get what you're trying to say, yeah, but, ahh," Bucky slammed his eyes closed, running both hands through his hair in anguish. "I can still hear it! I can _see_ him bleeding to death! He drowned in a pool of his own blood because of something I did! He _talked_ right to me, Jack!"

Bucky wilted to the floor, hands over his ears, eyes tightly closed, trying to block it all out, but Jack knew from experience that all that would do was keep it all in. So he went down to his knees beside Bucky, murmuring, "Then you talk to me; tell me moment by moment what happened. That helps me, and you know it helps you. Come on; don't keep this in."

Bucky whimpered, dragging in a deep breath before he physically made himself uncoil. Jack sat down on the floor and let his soulmate lean into him as Bucky uncovered his ears but kept his eyes lightly closed, thinking back as he spoke. "Pierce. Pierce was already involved in… the Asset program, and he's the one who gave the order to me, or the Asset, that day." When he took another deep breath, Jack reached for his flesh hand, gently smoothing away the fist he'd balled it into before his nails could begin to bruise his palm "They didn't want it to be a big show from the start – it was going to become that anyway – so it was just me and one other HYDRA agent – some newbie at the time, Rumlow – who went to the highway and waited. Stark and his wife had gone to a gala that night, and when Rumlow spotted him coming down the highway on the return trip, I planted a bomb on the car just around the curb, so Stark wouldn't see me and realize what was going on. The car with the bomb and a couple around it caused a pileup. Stark came around the corner without even having a chance, but he didn't get a slow death like the others. Maria lurched out of her seat on impact, half went through the windshield, and probably never even felt a thing. Then vehicles started to hit Stark's from behind and the car became twisted like a pretzel. Stark got pinned by his legs and an arm, something fell across his chest or side and broke ribs. He had a badly punctured lung by the time I got down there to make sure my mission was completed, and was literally starting to drown in his own blood. But he looked at me – he looked _right_ at me – and said, 'I knew it would be you. Just please tell me you're not going after Peggy too; the others are all gone.' My coding broke, Jack! He broke through to me for a second, just a second, and I remembered that I knew him, that I knew a 'Peggy', but nothing else! Not enough to know to try to save him! He'd dead because of me!"

"He's dead because of HYDRA," Jack said firmly, wrapping an arm around Bucky's shoulders and squeezing, letting the other man cry himself dry of the sobs that had started while he'd told the story. "And don't you ever forget it."

They may have sat like that for another hour, Jack wasn't sure, and he certainly didn't care. Bucky still needed moments like this sometimes and Jack was more than happy to be here for this one.

When Bucky was eventually cried out, he took a deep breath and sat up, looking at Jack and looking marginally better in general. "Thanks for listening."

"That's what soulmates are for," Jack answered easily. "I'm glad to do it."

Bucky searched his eyes steadily for a minute before he declared, "You have another story, Jack, something that haunts you as much as any interrogation, and whenever you're ready to talk about it, I'll listen." Jack nodded but kept silent, wondering if somehow Bucky had seen the visions floating behind his eyes of dead Japs and a white flag streaked with dirt as it was being buried out of sight. So Bucky took another deep breath and steered the conversation in an entirely different direction with the beginnings of a smile on his face. "Didn't you say something about Danny when you first came in here?" Jack nodded, wondering if he needed to repeat what exactly, but then Bucky said happily, "Look at you passing tests and not taking the chance to back out! Are you sure about what you said?"


	22. Chapter 22

"I'm sure," Jack decreed.

"Then you need to go talk to him; he's waited more than long enough for you to get over your sorry self."

"Are you sure you don't want me to stick around for a little bit longer?" Jack asked hesitantly; he didn't want to leave if there was a chance that Bucky would need someone again.

"Nah, I'm good." Bucky smiled appreciatively and stood, offering Jack a hand up. "I'm going to get JARVIS to hunt down Steve or Thor to go a round with in the ring."

"Loki's good if you want a tactical approach," Jack suggested.

"I think I just want blood, bones, and brute strength right now," Bucky admitted with a careful smile.

Jack returned the gesture, trying not to frown at the way that sounded. "Alright then. Be careful, though."

Bucky grinned affectionately. "You sound like me."

"Somebody has to parole you," Jack joked, not sure if he was really joking or not when it came to moments like these.

"Trust me when I say that you were the last one to get on that bandwagon."

Jack grinned at Bucky's eye roll, declaring, "And I'm not getting off it any time soon."

He leaned in to give Bucky an experimental hug – the first time he would've done anything of the sort, but he didn't want to feel _so_ helpless before he got to Daniel that he panicked – but the super soldier took a step back, a knowing glint in his eye. "Nope. Danny first." Jack made a face, but shot Bucky a smile as he started towards the elevator. "Hey," Bucky called after him. "You may want to put your shirt back on."

He threw the tee towards Jack, who caught it easily and asked, "JARVIS, where's Daniel?"

"Alone in Captain Rogers' kitchen."

Jack raised an eyebrow at Bucky, requesting, "Wish me luck."

Bucky grinned. "You won't need it."

Watching him go, Bucky found himself wearing a small but ruefully happy smile, despite himself. Even with the issues that he still struggled with, he could finally feel his soulmate group falling perfectly into place and becoming what it was meant to be.

* * *

 _August 29, 2014_

"Hey, darlin', Coulson wants us in the mechanics wing," Trip declared, poking his head into the lounge where Skye was sitting with her laptop on her knees. "The new guy's here."

"What's his name?" Skye asked curiously, turning off her laptop and unfolding herself from the couch.

Trip shrugged as she met him in the doorway, looping an arm around her shoulders as they headed to their destination. "I guess that's what we're going to go find out."

When they reached the bay, Fitz, May, and Audrey were already there, talking to an African-American mountain of a man. Trip whistled under his breath, murmuring in Skye's ear, "Just your type, babe."

Then Coulson spoke up. "Everybody," he introduced. "This is Alphonso Mackenzie. He's our new mechanic."

Skye's mouth dropped open, her eyes bugged, and then she turned her head slowly to look at Trip, whose expression must've matched her own. The thought made her pull herself together, though she couldn't quite help her smile.

She asked the new guy then, "So, does anyone call you Al?"

He blinked once, scanned her from head to toe in the time it would've taken to blink a second time, and answered, "It's just Mack... or soulmate?"

Skye laughed out loud as she heard the periwinkle words that had been imprinted around her left ankle since the day she was born, forgetting to notice how Coulson started shuffling May, Audrey, and Fitz out, or how Fitz snorted in disbelief, realizing that he'd just lost out on finding a new best friend. He dug out the phone that he'd been constantly carrying around for a couple of months and texted someone as they left Skye, Trip and Mack alone in the mechanics wing. She saw Mack doing the math once they were left alone – yes, there was only three of them here – but did a happy little jig anyway.

Mack arched an eyebrow, smiling hesitantly at her as he sidled up to Trip and asked the words that Skye knew were just over the specialist's heart: "Is she always this bouncy?"

"Usually," Trip answered honestly, wearing a broad smile of his own. "But right now it's because of us."

Mack paused again, both men swallowed, and there was this _moment_ between the two of them that had nothing to do with Skye. But she didn't mind – she couldn't bring herself to mind _anything_ at the moment – and bounded over to hug Mack. He wrapped one arm around her and beckoned Trip to his free side with the other. Then the three of them were hugging and, no, it still wasn't perfect because they were still missing _someone_ , but it was certainly better than it had been ten minutes ago when it was just her and Trip… wasn't it?

* * *

 _September 1, 2014_

Three days later, Coulson brought on another team – former mercenaries who would work for SHIELD as specialists. Their team leader was a man by the name of Lance Hunter, who, himself, was of no particular interest to Skye…

* * *

 _October 21, 2014_

…until Bobbi Morse showed up on base – bringing Jemma with her – and turned out to be Hunter's soulmate and ex-wife. Now, that – that was interesting. And Skye could use a bit of interesting, given the rough time that she had been having because of feeling left out thanks to the especially inseparable friendship Trip and Mack had. Maybe she would have that with their fourth, but until then, well, she could feel a little less alone by reveling in other people's relationship problems.

So she hunted Jemma down in the lab and asked her that very day, "What happened between Hunter and Bobbi?"

"I don't know," Jemma shrugged, tucking her now-cropped hair behind her ear. "No one will say."

This "talking about other people's problems" wasn't working like Skye had hoped it would, and she asked glumly, "Do you think that they have another soulmate out there somewhere?"


	23. Chapter 23

"I don't know," Jemma answered again. "Though SHIELD files would probably say. Either way," She glanced across the room at Fitz tellingly, "Someone should do something for them; it's terrible when soulmates drift apart." The scientist looked hastily away when Fitz caught her staring and muttered, "Regardless, things that are meant to come out, come out in their own time. Everything will sort itself out soon enough."

* * *

 _She's wise,_ Heimdall mused to himself with the smallest smile before ordering a guard, "Tell Sif that I need her to come to me so that she can be sent to Midgard immediately. It's time for the prince to receive further instructions to complete his mission."

The guard nodded the affirmative and then disappeared, coming back a few minutes later behind Sif. "You desire to send me to Midgard, gatekeeper?" Sif asked before she even came to a halt. "Are Coulson's people in trouble again?"

"In a manner of speaking," Heimdall allowed. "It's time for Loki to complete his mission, and that starts with someone informing the Avengers that Coulson is alive and rebuilding SHIELD. Beyond that point I believe things will unfold as they ought to, so long as all the right people are involved."

* * *

"Your visits always bring such attention to themselves, old friend," Loki purred as the light of the Bifrost disappeared to reveal Lady Sif.

"I suppose we're both just lucky that you have moments of desiring solitude," she shot back, not as venomous as she would've been before he sat on the throne, as she looked around the Canadian winter wonderland that he'd once again gotten the urge to teleport to. "The climate must suit you."

"As a matter of fact, it does. But not you, which means that you must have a reason for coming. Trouble at home?"

"Hardly. As a matter of fact, I bring what I think you'll call good news. I have instructions from my brother on how to carry out the last of your mission."

Loki straightened to attention at once. "What instructions are those?"

"Tell the Avengers that Coulson is alive and rebuilding SHIELD; Heimdall believes that will be enough to put things on the right track. Get them to meet Coulson's new team, and when they do go to meet them, ensure that the one called Falcon meets them as well."

" _I've_ never even met Falcon," Loki protested. "And by my calculations, the only ones among the Avengers who don't now have a completed bond are Romanoff and Barton."

"I suspect Heimdall is merely thinking ahead and trying to make things easier for all concerned. You would be wise to follow his instructions."

And then the warrioress was gone in a second flash of the Bifrost, leaving Loki alone in the snow with a curse on his lips. Months of waiting on Midgard, and _these_ were his instructions? They were going to make him work for the completion of this mission – or quite possibly die for it – but as things stood, he didn't particularly have a choice. With that in mind, he sighed and made his way back to Avengers Tower.

"JARVIS," he demanded the second he returned to the Tower, "Tell the Avengers that I need them to meet me in Thor's living room."

"Yes, sir."

Five minutes later, Earth's finest were all six scattered around the room and staring at him expectantly. Norns, why hadn't he made Sif come back and do this part for him?

"JARVIS said that you had something to say," Dr. Banner prompted.

"I have to inform you that," Loki chose his words carefully, tried to find a gentle way to break the news, decided that there was none, and blurted out, "Coulson is alive and rebuilding SHIELD with a different team."

There was a stunned silence – the calm in between the tornado siren sounding and the actual tornado tearing everything to shreds – and then all hell broke loose. When Loki heard even _Barton_ threatening his former mentor with bodily harm, he suggested, "Couldn't you just go to his base with _good_ intentions and repair the situation with him? Trust me when I say that's better than desiring vengeance."

Natasha sighed, the first to really consider Loki's proposition, and said, "I don't why we couldn't, you guys. A coalition with this reappearing SHIELD is actually a good idea. No, we don't need funding, but I'm sure that he does, and both of us could use extra manpower."

Steve agreed first, and then Thor, Banner, Barton, and – with a glance from Banner – Stark.

"So when are we going to go see him?" Barton asked, now seeming the most excited at the prospect.

"Why save for the day after tomorrow what can be done tomorrow?" Banner suggested.

The other Avengers all agreed, and Thor asked Loki, "Will you accompany us, brother?"

Seeing that Barton was about to raise the obvious objection, Loki declared, "I intend to, yes, seeing as Coulson already knows of my activities on earth." Barton closed his mouth and settled for glaring at the Jotun, and Loki remembered, "And Captain Rogers? I believe it would be a good idea to have your friend, the Falcon, accompany us."

"Sam's a VA counselor;" Rogers said thoughtfully. "He might come in handy if arguments do come up."

Loki smiled like that had been his thoughts all along, despite the fact that he knew next to nothing about the Falcon. Somehow, though, he thought Heimdall had more than what the captain had proposed on his mind.

 _Regardless,_ he thought. _Things that are meant to come out, come out in their own time. Everything will sort itself out soon enough._

* * *

 _October 23, 2014_

Maybe it wasn't the best idea for the eight of them to come to the Playground uninvited, but they had done it anyway. They hadn't expected for people to act like they were trying to _storm_ the place! And yet, two paces away from the entrance, someone had started firing on them!


	24. Chapter 24

Six people had tumbled out of the base, guns already blazing. Muttering curses to themselves, Barton and Romanoff dispatched themselves to deal with a couple of them, Sam and Cap went after a two more, Thor darted in the direction he thought he'd spotted Coulson, and Stark moved in towards the last of their assailants. Banner stayed where he was for the good of all concerned, just in case, and Loki thought to do something else entirely.

He ducked for cover and dug out the ever-present phone through which he'd stayed in contact with Leopold and texted him _It's me and the Avengers outside! We're friendlies!_

Not sixty seconds later, Leopold burst out of the base, a communications device in his hands as he screamed for them all to stop, for order, for a ceasefire. Loki panicked – he hadn't expected the silly man to come out into the midst of this! – and ran for Leopold, grabbing the other man around the waist and hauling him down to the ground, only for the doctor's request to be obeyed seconds later.

The fighting had stopped; Loki only hoped that no one had been hurt beforehand.

* * *

Bobbi froze as Fitz's screaming voice came through her comms. "They're the _Avengers_! They're on our side! Don't hurt them!"

 _Huh. So that's where I recognized her. Natasha Romanoff._

Romanoff being the woman that Bobbi currently held pinned to the ground, a gun to her temple. Getting up slowly, holstering her gun and holding up her hands in a show of, she hoped, peaceful intentions, Bobbi said approvingly, "So you're team Delta; Coulson's told us a lot about you."

The redhead who had been so quick to spring gracefully to her feet suddenly froze, her butterfly knife again poised in her hand, and just as suddenly muttered, "I've said it before, but I am going to _kill_ Loki!"

Bobbi swore. "You've _got_ to be kidding me!"

"Oh, no, I'm completely serious. Loki is now officially at the top of my target list. After I get inside that base and turn Coulson into Swiss cheese for lying to us."

"You sure you can't rearrange your priorities for me a little bit?" Bobbi suggested with a raised eyebrow.

Natasha's gaze swept over her as she pretended to consider. "I guess that I could try. For you."

* * *

Only a few yards away from where Natasha had been scuffling with one of Coulson's idiotic new team members, Clint heard when his wife snarled something about killing Loki, and then heard the agent – another woman – say something in return. Worried by the shouting, Clint shoved away from the overzealous bearded man he had pinned against a tree and darted in the direction of the shouting. His dark-haired assailant followed him, grabbing his arm just as Natasha and the other woman came into sight.

"Don't you know you'd do best to give an angry agent space?" the man asked.

Clint skipped half a beat before he asked evenly, "Even if she's our soulmate?"

Hearing an unfamiliar voice, the blonde woman's head snapped around and, seeing the way her friend was staring at Clint, she asked the archer carefully, "Both of you are ours, then?"

Clint grinned, answering, "Apparently so, beautiful."

"Beautiful?" Bobbi snorted. "Do you see the bleeding gash on my neck? Because I see the one on your arm. And on his forehead and her hand. I'm Bobbi Morse, by the way, and he's Lance Hunter."

Lance Hunter, for one didn't seem to see their wounds any more than Clint did, though, as he surveyed Natasha appreciatively, murmuring to her, "Holy crap, Bob and I lucked out, didn't we, sweetheart?"

Natasha had actual tears in her eyes as she answered happily, "I just, I can't believe we finally found you!"

"Now that we've found you, I'd like to fix you, if you don't mind," Bobbi said, taking a step forward and ghosting her fingertips over the cut on Hunter's forehead.

"It's not that bad, Bob," Hunter muttered, brushing her hand away. "However, Natasha's hand; geez, what'd you two get into?"

"She was the one with the knife; are you really going to blame me for taking it?" Bobbi asked.

Natasha added, "Or me for struggling against giving it up? There is this thing called training, and I'd venture to say that we all have it, so please don't be surprised when we all act accordingly."

"Hey," Clint said. "You got her to say please; you should be proud of yourself."

"I get the feeling it'll be an even bigger accomplishment to get you all to the med bay," Bobbi muttered. "Hunter's right; I sliced her hand pretty bad."

" _She_ is right here," Natasha spoke up.

"And she needs medical attention," Clint agreed suddenly, peering down at Natasha's hand.

"So does your arm," she replied.

"And Bobbi's neck and Hunter's forehead, yeah, we know; Coulson's new you already gave us the litany, so let's just concentrate on taking care of it, shall we?"

"That's not fair," Bobbi murmured, swaying on her feet suddenly.

Clint and Hunter both jumped forward to help her, but Hunter stumbled and Natasha ended up holding him upright instead. "He's got a concussion, I think," Natasha realized, "And we're all going to start losing more blood than is pleasant in a second."

"Then how's about we get you all to Jemma for a checkup?"

Clint nearly lost his hold on Bobbi when Coulson and – Coulson had the _Cavalry_ on site? – Agent May stepped up, each going to Bobbi's and Hunter's unsupported sides and helping them move forward. A few steps forward and Coulson informed Clint with Bobbi between them, "Morse is right; it's unfair to call anyone here a replacement. You're quite obviously all equals in your own right, judging by the mess we're dumping on Simmons."

"You're the one who sent a squad after us!"

"You didn't call ahead to say that you wanted a family reunion," Coulson replied flippantly.

"I didn't see you calling us, either," Clint spat back.

"I am sorry about that," Coulson apologized sincerely, looking between Clint and Natasha.

"Sorry enough to consider a coalition of our teams?" Natasha asked.


	25. Chapter 25

Coulson and May both stumbled as Clint added a little scathingly, "That's why we came, actually, second to, you know," he eyed his former handler. "Tearing you apart for keeping us out of the loop."

"How many times am I going to have to apologize for that?"

Clint shrugged his unencumbered shoulder and Bobbi suggested, "Shouldn't meeting your soulmates make up for it a little?"

Again Coulson and May missed a step each in their surprise and May asked incredulously, "The four of you are soulmates?"

"Great, isn't it?" Hunter smiled.

"Shut up, you," Natasha ordered affectionately. "You have a concussion."

He leaned his head over on her slight shoulder, declaring, "It didn't blind me, though, gorgeous."

"Yeah," May drawled. "This is going to be great."

"But it will be," Coulson said, looking increasingly excited. "This coalition would give us the best group of specialists possible! And to have the Avengers with us again would be invaluable!"

"I take it you agree to the coalition?" Natasha grinned despite herself as she added, "Even though that means you'll have to face Cap's 'disappointed' face."

Coulson winced bit declared, "If this is what you four are capable of in less than a minute, it'll be worth it."

"You say that now," Natasha smirked as the six of them stepped into the med bay.

Steve, Tony, Thor, Trip, Mack, and Audrey were already there. Jemma was already in a side room, applying dressing to a wound on Skye's leg.

Audrey saw them first and muttered, "It was less than a minute! Steve tried to amputate Skye's leg and then you all come in here like this!"

"I was only trying to trip her up!" Steve protested. "Not every one of us even engaged in a fight."

"Only five of you look like you need anything looked at, counting Skye," Fitz said, coming into the lab with Loki at his side.

When Audrey inhaled sharply, May left Hunter with Natasha and went to her side.

"Do you… want… me to…?" Fitz gestured to Hunter's head.

"Let me," Dr. Banner said, stepping into the med bay… with Peggy Carter at his heels.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asked her in confusion.

"I wanted to check on mine and Howard's love child." At Tony's loud noise of objection, she rolled her eyes and clarified, "SHIELD."

"She showed up completely alone," Bruce promised. "Rolling up his sleeves as he moved towards Natasha, Clint, Bobbi, and Hunter. "Natasha, sit him down in that chair. I need a couple of first-aid kits." Trip handed them to him and Bruce tossed one to Clint. "Yours doesn't look as bad; can you bandage your arm yourself?"

"I'll do it," Coulson volunteered.

Bruce nodded and went to work on Hunter without a second glance. "Somebody clean up that neck wound. I need to know if it's big or just bloody."

"It's just bloody," Natasha answered. "The cut's shallow. I botched a swipe at an artery."

Coulson muttered another curse under his breath and the last person to join their party – Sam Wilson – laughed as he asked, "You want me to clean up her cut, red? Or I'll doctor your hand and you can take care of her neck one-handed?"

"That works," Natasha agreed.

So Sam sat down with a third first-aid kit when Trip handed it to him and started in on Natasha's hand while she made quick work of cleaning Bobbi's neck.

Standing nervously beside the trio and watching Clint and Coulson bicker back and forth, Trip asked under his breath, "Is this going to be bad? Do we need to protect Coulson?"

Sam froze, turned just enough to eye Trip over his shoulder and answered evenly, "Nope. I have a feeling this is going to be the best day ever."

Raising his eyebrows, Trip subtly motioned Mack to them. Mack had been watching the entire scene, had paid more attention to the fact that Sam and Trip had been discussing Clint and Coulson than anything else, and asked when he stepped up behind Trip, "I thought they were kind of his first adopted kids?"

If Sam had been trying not to smile before, he lost the battle now as he answered just as evenly, "They are, from what I understand."

Now all three men smiled broadly, and Mack canted his head towards the side room where Jemma was just finishing with Skye, asking Trip the obvious question with his eyes and the one word, "Skye?"

"Give them another second; let's make sure our girl's leg is good to go before she starts jumping for joy again," Trip grinned.

"'Our girl'?" Sam repeated curiously, glancing towards the side room in time for Skye and Jemma to come out – and for Skye to hear what he'd asked Mack and Trip.

Her eyes widened as she took him in, made the connection, and moved to throw her arms around him, saying gleefully, "Oh, yes!"

Sam laughed, instinctively hugging her in return, before he leaned away from her to get a good look at his brunette soulmate and murmured appreciatively, "Well, hello there, gorgeous!"

Then there was this _moment_ where the entire room fell away, even Mack and Trip. Skye's smile widened and she hauled Sam in for a kiss.

* * *

Still standing just to the edge of the medical bay doorway, Loki smiled at the soulmate meeting of these four who were really complete strangers to him. _So that's why Heimdall wanted the Falcon here. Considering the coalition, this team must be considered part of the Avengers now._

For a moment, the idea distressed him, but then he took stock of all the soulbonds represented there. Technically speaking all of them were completed, even though he knew from Leopold's text that the engineer's relationship with Jemma was still on rocky terms since her return to the base.

And where that was concerned… well, he honestly didn't know that he cared whether or not he _had_ to help them; he wanted to see his friend happy with the soulmate that he still loved. Maybe he should try talking to Dr. Simmons himself, relaying some of what Leopold had confided in him over their months of correspondence.


	26. Chapter 26

Deciding on that as a reasonable course of action, he lingered out of the way, watching Leopold and his Dr. Simmons in particular, seeing the way that they managed to work together without speaking. Either that was a good sign – they were so in tune that they didn't need discussion – or a bad one – they were so out of touch that it was easier not to discuss anything. Regardless, he wanted to talk to Dr. Simmons and tell her what he knew Leopold hadn't told her himself… not, at least, since the day that the duo had nearly drowned.

Watching them work as he had been, Loki saw the moment when she noticed that there was an unexpected personage in the room. She dropped the roll of gauze that she'd been just about to put back in its place, going just a little bug-eyed as she stared at Peggy Carter talking to Captain Rogers.

"Is that…? How…? What?!"

Loki smiled in amusement. Apparently Captain America wasn't the only one with fans in this base. Seeing who she was looking at with such amazement, Leopold grinned too and pointed in Loki's direction. This was yet another thing that the two men had discussed via text. Did it say something about Leopold and Dr. Simmons that the engineer obviously hadn't shared their correspondence with his soulmate? He decided that he was reading into things too much and stayed behind when Dr. Simmons and Leopold put their lab to rights while everyone else migrated into the lounge.

Seeing the nervous gaze that Coulson shot to Thor, Loki's brother declared, "I'd prefer to stay by Loki" and did accordingly.

"Disappointed not to go with your friends?" Loki asked under his breath when Thor came to stand at his side.

"No. The Falcon and his soulmates went in an entirely different direction than the rest, so they aren't all together anyway," Thor answered. "Moreover, you deserve a chance to see your own friends as well without censor." With that, Thor nodded pointedly towards Leopold.

"Without censor" might have been a little presumptuous, Loki realized, taking in the nervous tautness of Dr. Simmons stance, but there was a chance that he could work with that. Smiling gratefully at Thor, Loki stepped up to where both doctors were putting away the last of their things while they made harmless banter about just how _obvious_ it was that Skye had a type.

"Hello again, by the by, my old friend," he greeted Leopold. "My… tackle at the entrance didn't harm you, did it?"

Dr. Simmons looked between the duo in alarm, but remained silent as Leopold rotated his neck experimentally. "No," the man answered, but Loki had seen him wince.

"I could use a touch of my healing powers to take away the soreness, if you'd like," he offered with a smile that might've been more of a grimace. "Please, allow me; I feel rather responsible for this mess to begin with."

Leopold nodded then, turning his back to Loki as the Jotun informed him, "Agent Carter has compared this particular spell to a… what did she call it... 'an instant ice-pack'."

Leopold smiled over his shoulder as Loki brushed his fingertips over the back of the other man's neck – then hissed as an unexpected pain blossomed where they touched. Loki's eyes blew wide as he felt the same stabbing pain in his fingertips, his heart suddenly hammering in his chest. _No, that didn't just happen!_

But it had, Loki realized, staring down at his redacted hand in shock. A silver rune – silver _soulmark_ – now adorned the tip of every one of the fingers on his right hand where he had touched the engineer.

Then he noticed that Dr. Simmons was staring at him, and Leopold too over his shoulder. It hit him then that they didn't realize what had just happened – Leopold couldn't even see the five green marks now on his own body. Just as soon as that thought came to mind, he decided that he wasn't going to tell them either, not yet. These two deserved to learn to love one another as they ought before he tried to throw himself into the mix.

But what to do right this instant?

"I'm sorry," he told Leopold a little hastily. "I wasn't thinking; the spell had strength enough for an Asgardian, not a Midgardian. May I try again?"

Dr. Simmons looked leery, but Leopold obviously trusted him, simply nodding and turning back around. This time when Loki touched him nothing happened – the soulmark had already just been formed, so nothing else should've occurred – and the spell was able to take effect.

"That… does… feel… better," Leopold grinned, turning back around to face Loki. "Thanks."

Loki smiled as well as he could, an entirely new sort of lonely ache taking up residence in his chest as he replied, "You're welcome."

Leopold turned to Dr. Simmons and requested of Loki, "Do her… shoulders? She's… tense."

"I sincerely doubt that my touch would soothe your soulmate, Leopold," he replied, a dry, sad sort of smirk coming onto his lips before slipping off in its entirety as he realized. If Leopold was Loki's soulmate, and Dr. Simmons was Leopold's soulmate, then there was a fair chance that this tense, pixie-like woman was also Loki's soulmate.

He didn't know whether he ought to cry or wretch, so he settled for smoothing a smile back onto his face and asking, "Should we join the others in the lounge now?"

"Yes," Dr. Simmons said quickly, gesturing for Leopold to follow her.

Loki made to trail the duo, seeing for the first time how Thor had taken a few steps towards them from where he'd stationed himself and was now watching Loki intently. His brother had obviously seen everything and realized what Leopold had not. Thor grabbed Loki's arm as he moved to pass him and waited until Leopold and Dr. Simmons were out of hearing range before he spoke.

"Why do I get the feeling that you wouldn't take kindly to congratulations right now?" Thor asked, searching Loki's face and trying to understand.


	27. Chapter 27

"I don't deserve them and they don't deserve the trouble that I would bring with me," Loki answered unblinkingly, sorely wishing to tear his arm out of Thor's grip and leave this base.

"Maybe they don't deserve you," Thor said delicately, allowing Loki what the Jotun knew his brother thought was a misconception. "But perhaps you ought to consider whether or not they _need_ you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Loki snorted.

"Consider what Stark has said he and Lady Pepper were like before Bruce revealed himself as their soulmate; even the rockiness that sprang up between Darcy, Jane, and me before you forced Darcy and me to touch. You're no stranger to how stressful and futile these situations are; why put yourself in the middle of one, brother?"

"Because I don't deserve them!" Loki snarled, ripping his arm away from Thor and stalking off.

Still Thor's words would not leave him… because he knew enough of Leopold and Dr. Simmons' situation to see the possibility for truth in them. _He didn't deserve them… but did they need him?_

* * *

Thor waited until he could no longer see Loki before he went in the direction he'd seen his teammates go earlier. Before very long at all, he could simply follow the shouting, and did so easily, but remained lingering in the doorway as the Avengers told Coulson exactly what they thought of his deception. Thor found that he didn't care so much anymore, though, not when his brother's happiness was on the line like this.

While he waited, he pulled out the cellular phone that Stark had long ago given him – the one that Darcy had only recently gotten him adept at using – and called Jane.

"Hi, handsome!" Darcy answered Jane's phone. "Jane's doing Science! right now; do you want me to deliver a message?"

"I'd like you both to join me at Coulson's base," he said. "Do you have the address?"

"Yeah…" she answered, mystified, "Or I can get it off of Pepper or JARVIS at least. Why? What's up?"

"Loki found his soulmate."

"That's great!" Darcy squealed.

"Not particularly."

Darcy was right back at mystified as she asked, "Why not?"

Thor sighed. "His soulmate doesn't realize what happened and has another soulmate entirely, and Loki's refusing to say a word about it."

"Because…?"

"Because he feels he doesn't deserve them – and I say 'them' because he seems to be operating under the idea that his soulmate's other soulmate is also _his_ soulmate, but they're both refusing to touch one another because she apparently resents his presence here."

"Okay, wow," Darcy let out a lengthy sigh over the phone. "I'll get Janey on one of Tony's jets ASAP – though I'll have to get Eddie to fly us there."

"That's a fine idea!" Thor declared, his thoughts suddenly entire paces ahead of his mouth. "Could Lady Pepper and Steve's remaining six soulmates come as well?"

"Calling in the entire cavalry, are we? Are you planning on needing them all?"

"To combat Loki's stubbornness we just might," he pointed out flatly.

"Hey, we'll fix this, Thor. Don't worry about Loki; nowadays he's got more people on his side than even he realizes. I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Very well. Thank you, beloved."

"Anything for you. Besides, Loki's part of the family too now. We'll get this straightened out," Darcy promised again before hanging up.

Again Thor was back to waiting, which he did impatiently enough, until the other Avengers were done yelling and started to negotiate the points of the coalition between the two teams instead. When they got to this point, he decided now was as good a time as any, and motioned Dr. Banner over to him.

Raising his eyebrows, Bruce left his spot on the couch beside Tony and went to Thor, who was quick to lower his voice and explain, "Loki's discovered his soulmate and is panicking because he's deemed himself unworthy. I thought, given your past with Stark and Lady Pepper…"

Despite Bruce's increasingly raised eyebrows, his expression morphed into one of understanding as he said, "Sure, I'll talk to him; where is he?"

"I'm not certain exactly, but he went that way."

Thor pointed in the appropriate direction and Bruce loped off in search of Loki.

The god, however, was nowhere to be found – not by Bruce at least. Then the others arrived from Avengers Tower to help, and an explanation or three was needed to make sense of their presences.

 _They're Steve's soulmates – yes, all of them – resurrected by Loki, who is having a supremely bad day, and needs to be found because he… might be suicidal._

But even with that motivational lie on everyone's mind, Loki remained stubbornly un-located.

"Are we sure he's not just teleporting around to stay away from us?" Jane eventually asked Thor.

"I don't believe so. If he moved too much with so many people here he'd have made a misstep and been caught by now."

"So where is he hiding out?" Jane asked in exasperation.

Fitz, part of the duo searching nearest to them, snapped around towards the question, inspiration flashing in his eyes. He smacked his own forehead, startling Jemma beside him. Without answering her unasked question, he grabbed her hand and tugged her down a hallway after him.

He thought excitedly, _We didn't check the bunks yet because we didn't think he'd know about them, but he spent entire days in one! How could I have overlooked that?!_

"Fitz!" Jemma demanded as they ran, once, twice, and he turned to look at her once they reached the hallways of bunks. "What _is_ that on your neck?"

He brushed his hand along the back of his neck, feeling nothing unusual, and declared, "There's… nothing... there."

"Yes, there is. Did you get a tattoo?"

"Of… course… not! My… neck… is… the… same… as… it… was… yesterday."

She shook her head, and this time it was her dragging him – straight into her own bunk where she held up a couple of mirrors, positioning them so that he could see the green markings on his neck. Doing a double take, his eyebrows nearly hit his hairline. _What's that and where did it come from?!_

And then, feeling like a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head, he remembered what Loki had told him once of Asgardian and Jotun soulmarks. _Runes appearing the first time soulmates touch skin to skin._

 _But we touched a dozen times when he was here before! But always with the sweater underneath Loki's fingers… Until… the pain when Loki cast that spell for my sore neck!_

" _Oh… my… lord_!" he murmured dropping down onto her bed.

"What is it, Fitz?" she asked worriedly. "What's going on?"

Looking back up at her, he suddenly seized her right hand and bounded up and to his original destination, pounding on the door of the bunk where Loki had originally stayed. When he received no answer, he threw the door open anyway, and there, just as he'd suspected, was Loki, curled up on the bed and watching them apprehensively.

Acting quickly, Fitz moved to press Jemma's hand to Loki's cheek – if this was what was going on, then he wanted to see the best proof with his own eyes – but Loki was faster, reaching out to grasp Jemma's wrist before she could touch his face. Fitz saw the moment Loki realized how his reaction had backfired, his eyes widening when Jemma yelled and yanked her wrist free. Loki looked down at his hand to see a rose-colored rune now taking up most of his palm underneath the line of silver on his fingertips, and both Fitz and Jemma stared at the green rune – exactly the same as the one on Fitz's neck – on Jemma's wrist.

 _It's in the exact same spot as my words from her_ , Fitz mused. _Like Loki's the one bringing us full circle._

The thought had him looking up from Jemma's wrist, into hers and Loki's faces, before he realized that _everyone_ had come running at Jemma's scream.

Darcy spoke first, casting a glance between Coulson and Loki as she declared in the form of a question, "I guess that means that the bus has a new resident, right, Agent iPod?"

Fitz didn't know who to turn his pleading eyes to first, Coulson or Jemma, so he settled for the former when he saw that Loki had the latter covered in that area. Coulson closed his eyes and sighed, before agreeing, "Alright, but he better be able to make himself useful."

"You won't regret it, director, I promise," Loki informed him, standing to shake his hand.

Coulson accepted the gesture, muttering, "I better not."

"You have my word," Loki murmured, sitting down on the bed between where Leopold has dropped with Dr. Simmons, looking more at her than at anyone else as he made the promise. "I shall be as good for you as I know how to be for as long as you'll have me."

"Well," Coulson declared dryly. "Natasha was right about manpower; I'm too low on that to turn anyone away, so with a declaration like that, Loki, I guess you've found yourself a new home."

"I guess so," Jemma said quietly, linking hands with Loki with a timid smile.

"Welcome home," Leopold added, slinging an arm cheerfully around Loki's shoulders.

With both of his soulmates there beside him, the empty loneliness that Loki had been feeling for years finally vanished and he smiled, pulling them both close.

In the moment before Jane pulled the door to the bunk closed for them, he noticed something interesting. Even flooding the cramped hallway, every person outside the bunk was still with their soulmates, drawn to them by some invisible force that he'd had a part in seeing begun, in some cases.

Stark, Miss Potts, and Dr. Banner.

Thor, Jane, and Darcy.

Captain Rogers, Lieutenant Barnes, Agent Carter, Jack Thompson, the Jarvises, and the Sousas.

Director Coulson, Agent May and Miss Nathan.

Barton, Romanoff, Hunter, and Morse.

Agents Skye, Triplett, and Mackenzie, and Sam Wilson.

Gathered together in the hallway in groups of three or four – or eight – they are each other's "happily ever after," exactly as Loki had been tasked with, and now, at the end of finding their happy endings, he'd found his own. Yes, the idea of being Leopold and Jemma's soulmate left them all in uncharted territory, but it was territory that they would travel together, and after centuries alone, that was more than enough for him.

* * *

Looking down on the proceedings at the Playground, Heimdall felt genuine surprise for the first time in decades.

"How does Loki fare in his mission at the moment?" Odin asked as he and the queen came up to stand beside Heimdall.

Prying his eyes away from the scene on Midgard as sudden understanding hit him, the gatekeeper answered his king evenly, "I would tell you, but I won't waste your time, seeing as I suspect that you knew from the beginning of this years ago what the outcome would be."

Turning and walking back the way he'd come, the All-Father merely smiled to himself.

* * *

 **And thus we reach the end of this trilogy! Thanks for the support and R &R-ing, as well as putting up with the updates that I did!**


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